Predictors of Attitudes Towards Gay and Lesbian Couples
Patrick J. Curme & Kerry S. Kleyman
Metropolitan State University
Abstract
Method
Results
The current study seeks to predict attitudes and biases towards
gay and lesbian prospective adoptive parents. Participants were
given one of 20 scenarios about a proposed adoption and asked
to judge the appropriateness of the adoption and the prospective
parents. The study employed individual difference variables,
including Social Dominance, Religious Fundamentalism, and
Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men, as well as a novel
“Homosexual-Blind Orientation Attitudes Scale” modeled after
Neville’s Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (Neville et al., 2000).
Participants
254 individuals were recruited from a large Midwestern University and
social media platforms (59% female, 41% male). The average age
was 38.
HSBA Validation
•Table 1 shows the regression model for HSBA Privilege,
R = .472, R2 = .223.
•Table 2 shows the regression model for HSBA Blatant
Homosexual Attitudes, R = .692, R2 = .479.
The aim of the study was to better understand the underlying
sources of prejudice towards gay and lesbian prospective
adoptive parents, and offer perspectives on new avenues for
research into the areas of unconscious biases and attitudes
towards lesbian and gay couples who seek to become adoptive
parents.
Introduction
The need for adoptive parents in the U.S. is greater than ever; at
the end of 2015, over 159,000 children were still waiting to be
adopted from state agencies and had no permanent household
(AFCARS, 2015).
Increasingly, gay and lesbian couples have applied to become
adoptive parents, and over 16,000 same-sex couples are raising
an estimated 25,000 adopted children in the US (US Census,
2010). Additionally, over the last decade, rates of adoptive
parenthood among gay and lesbian couples has nearly tripled
(Gates, 2011).
Despite these positive trends, LGBT prospective adoptive
parents face numerous challenges to adopting, including state
prohibitions, discriminatory adoption agency policies, and the
personal prejudices and unconscious biases of the adoption
agents and social workers.
The current research investigates the underlying correlates of
individuals’ biases against prospective gay and lesbian adoptive
parents. Numerous examinations have demonstrated that
adoption personnel exhibit unconscious biases and personal
prejudices when deliberating a prospective adoption by a gay or
lesbian individual or couple (Mallon, 2000; Spivey, 2006).
As such, the current study employs a novel Homosexual-Blind
Orientation Attitudes Scale (HSBA), modeled after Neville’s
CoBRAS instrument, to illuminate participant’s unconscious
orientation-blind attitudes and biases (Neville et al., 2004).
Hypotheses
Materials
Participants were presented with a survey taken in-person or on-line.
Respondents were presented with a number of individual-differences
measures as well as a novel Homosexual-Blind Orientation Attitudes
Scale. Additionally, participants were randomly assigned one of 20
prospective adoption scenarios and asked a number of questions
assessing their view of the appropriateness of the proposed adoption
and the “best fit” of the prospective parents.
Scales Used
•Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men (Herek, 1988)
• ATLG (L) α = .846 (10-items)
• ATLG (G) α = .871 (10-items)
•Religious Fundamentalism (Altemeyer, 2006),
• α = .854 (12-items)
•Social Dominance Orientation (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001),
• α = .844 (14-items)
•Homosexual-Blind Orientation Attitudes Scale (author constructed)
• First Factor (Heterosexual Privilege), α = .674 (5-items)
• Second Factor (Institutional Discrimination), α = .491 (2-items)
• Third Factor (Blatant Homosexual Issues), α = .802 (6-items)
Other Tests
•Figure 1 shows a significant interaction on couple by
HSBA Blatant Homosexual Attitudes on family quality (i.e.
This individual/couple does NOT have the right qualities
that would enable them to raise a child - reversed),
F(1,78) = 6.42, p = .013, η2 = .076
•Table 3 shows the regression model for HSBA Blatant
Homosexual Attitude as as predictor of the child growing
up to have a “normal life”, R = .475, R2 = .225, F(3,76) =
7.369, p < .05.
Conclusion
The present study ventures to build on the progress of previous
studies of LGBT bias by predicting participant’s attitudes towards
gay and lesbian couples in an adoption setting. The results of this
examination demonstrates both the validity and utility of the
newly-proposed HSBA scale (Homosexual-Blind Orientation
Attitudes Scale) as a powerful instrument available for future
analyses of LGBT prejudice and unconscious bias.
As social attitudes change and public sentiments towards LGBT
individuals and gay and lesbian parents continue to improve, it will
become more challenging to uncover unconscious bias in
respondents, as discrimination will become increasingly socially
unacceptable. Researchers will need to find more robust and
clever methods with which to survey participant’s true feelings
towards these populations, which makes the potential usefulness
of the HSBA scale all the more exciting.
The results of the present study also suggest that the HSBA scale
can be used in concert with other widely-used instruments (RF,
SDO, ATLG) as a measure of validity and reliability. Additionally, it
follows that the HSBA can be employed in examinations of LGBT
bias housed in other areas besides adoption, including housing
practices, workplace discrimination, and education.
The limitation of the present study is that the HSBA scale has not
endured additional tests of reliability and validity in other studies,
so future research examinations should employ this instrument
alongside other widely-used measures to confirm it’s utility.
H1: It is hypothesized that participants scoring high on the HSBA
scale (i.e. biased) will be more likely to disapprove of LG
adoptive parents.
H2: It is hypothesized that participants with low HSBA scores (i.e.
less biased) will be far more likely to assign positive “best fit
scenario” scores to proposed adoptions by LG parents.
References
Available upon request.