Preliminary structural investigation of the Romanian version of Attitudes towards Prisoners scale: How many factors are there and why are they ambivalent?
Preliminary structural investigation of the Romanian version of Attitudes towards Prisoners scale: How many factors are there and why are they ambivalent?

Summary/Abstract: The main objective of the present study was to gain preliminary information and initial insights onto the factorial structure of the Romanian version of Attitude towards Prisoners scale (ATP; Melvin et al., 1985). Data collected from a convenience sample of undergraduate students (N = 192) were analyzed through a convergence use of the EFA, parallel analysis, and network analysis. As expected, the postulated unity of the original scale was infirmed. Instead, in line with the most recent similar use of ATP worldwide, a multiple factors solution proves to be the most adequate. The four-factor solution accounts best for the present data, but these structural results need further confirmation on additional samples. A hallmark of the results consists of the ambivalent nature of the attitudes emerging as structured in multiple distinct or even mixed factors. Apart from their ambivalence, the negative attitudes factors, the positive attitude factors, or the ambivalent attitudes factors show direct moderate correlations. The same pattern was possible to establish as emerging clearly on data from at least two versions of the scale: the Chinese ATP and the Romanian ATP. Further ideas and directions for exploring the structural features of the scale and measuring attitudes toward inmates are formulated.

• Details
• Contents