Psychometric Properties of the Old-Fashioned and Modern Prejudiced Attitudes Toward Aboriginals Scale

The Old-fashioned Prejudiced Attitudes Toward Aboriginals Scale (O-PATAS) and Modern Prejudiced Attitudes Toward Aboriginals Scale (M-PATAS) are two new measures of prejudicial attitudes toward Aboriginal people (i.e., Inuit, Metis, and First Nations) developed using the Theory of Modern Prejudice. This cross-validation study evaluated the psychometric properties of the O-PATAS and M-PATAS among 367 Canadian university students. The results of this investigation provided evidence attesting to the construct validity of the O-PATAS and M-PATAS. Both scales yielded a high degree of scale score reliability and demonstrated convergence with two established measures known to predict prejudice. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the original factor structures with three of the four goodness-of-fit statistics indicating model fit. The results obtained support the construct validity of the O-PATAS and M-PATAS as measures of prejudiced attitudes toward Aboriginal people among undergraduate students.