Social Work Faculty Publications
 

Abstract

Thousands of children throughout the United States are currently awaiting placement with adoptive families. The literature indicates that gay- and lesbian-headed households can well meet the needs of these children. Research suggests that sexual prejudice, religious fundamentalism and attitudes about gay and lesbian adoption may influence practice decisions regarding placement. This dissertation study examined the influences of religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, contact with sexually diverse individuals, and attitudes towards gay men and lesbians as adoptive parents on intent to place children in need with gay and lesbian couples. A random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members was surveyed; 1000 surveys were distributed and 303 usable surveys were returned. Religious fundamentalism was measured using the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Huntsberger, 2004), sexual prejudice was measured using the Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians (Herek, 1994) and attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents was measured using Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians as Adoptive Parents scale (Ryan, 2000). To assess willingness to use gay or lesbian couples as adoptive parents, respondents were asked to rank first and second choices on ten scenarios; two scenarios reflected easy to place children and eight hard to place children. A sizable minority of respondents failed to response to the scenarios. Those opting out tended to score lower on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and held more positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption.

Further, some respondents never included gay or lesbian couples; these respondents tended to score higher on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and negative attitudes to gays and lesbian couples as adoptive parents than those choosing at least one gay/lesbian response. Religious fundamentalism predicted sexual prejudice, which predicted negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians as adoptive parents. Religious fundamentalism also directly influenced attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents. In addition, personal contact with sexually diverse individuals partially influenced sexual prejudice. Overall, the results indicate that some professionals are inappropriately influenced by their personal values.

Disciplines

Family, Life Course, and Society | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Gender and Sexuality | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social Work | Sociology

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