Professional Attitudes Linked to Aporophobia Toward Women Experiencing Homelessness: Internal Structure and Content Heterogeneity

Aporophobia refers to rejection and devaluation associated with poverty and the perceived lack of resources. This study examined the internal structure of nine attitudinal items and differences in responses to them among professionals working in homelessness services in Spain. The Institutional Aporophobia Index (IAI), comprising nine items rated on a five-point Likert scale, was administered. The cleaned dataset contained 348 records; 266 had complete responses and were included in analyses of the full instrument. Item-level descriptive statistics used all available responses. The overall score was M = 2.04 (SD = 0.72). Minimum residual exploratory factor analysis based on polychoric correlations yielded loadings ranging from 0.583 to 0.819, and ordinal parallel analysis supported retaining one factor. Confirmatory factor analysis using WLSMV estimation, conducted on the same cases, showed favorable fit: χ2(27) = 49.16, p = 0.006; CFI = 0.993; TLI = 0.991; RMSEA = 0.056; SRMR = 0.036. Internal consistency was α = 0.862 and standardized α = 0.872; the omega coefficient derived from the polychoric model was 0.915. Differences between items were observed, Friedman’s χ2(8) = 367.19, p < 0.001, Kendall’s W = 0.173; 28 of the 36 pairwise comparisons were significant after Holm correction. The highest mean scores corresponded to statements concerning rules and educational limitations. The findings provide preliminary psychometric evidence and describe a heterogeneous response profile; they do not constitute an independent validation or establish the instrument’s specificity relative to other related constructs.