University Students’ Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Parenting and Gay and Lesbian Rights in Portugal

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore university students' attitudes toward same-sex parenting and toward gay and lesbian rights. A total of 292 participants, aged between 18 and 27 (M = 21) responded to a questionnaire measuring attitudes toward parenting by gay men and lesbians, gay and lesbian rights, and beliefs about the etiology of homosexuality. Results revealed that the majority of students were against gay and lesbian parenting, gay and lesbian equal rights, and believed that homosexuality has a social/environmental basis. It was found that sexual prejudice is highly prevalent in Portuguese university students, and implications of these findings are discussed.

Attitudes Toward Parenthood, Partnership, and Social Rights for Diverse Families: Evidence From a Pilot Study in Five Countries

“…This result contrasts with our third major finding, that students were less inclined to agree on equality in civil rights and in particular parenthood rights for homosexual couples-married or not-in traditional countries. A similar result emerged in a pilot study among students in Portugal, another traditional country (Costa et al, 2014). Fourth, although further research is required to validate these scales over a wider pool of countries, the results from our preliminary factor analyses suggest respondents distinguish between parenthood, partnership, and social rights across diverse family forms.…”

“…Fourth, although further research is required to validate these scales over a wider pool of countries, the results from our preliminary factor analyses suggest respondents distinguish between parenthood, partnership, and social rights across diverse family forms. These distinctive items could thus be integrated into existing questionnaires on attitudes toward diverse families, such as the Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage Scale (Pearl & Galupo, 2007), the Attitudes Toward Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Scale (Costa et al, 2014) or large-scale comparative surveys such as the European Social Survey.…”

“…By contrast, few studies have explored possible crosscountry differences in attitudes toward the partnership rights of individuals living in diverse family forms. Indeed, among the few studies specifically addressing these types of rights (Costa et al, 2014;Jakobsson et al, 2013;Miller & Chamberlain, 2013), the focus is on the role of individual level factors such as gender and religion. Similarly, the small but growing literature that investigates attitudes toward the reproductive rights of gays and lesbians is based on single-country studies or datasets (with few exceptions, such as Präg & Mills, 2015).…”

“…Similarly, the small but growing literature that investigates attitudes toward the reproductive rights of gays and lesbians is based on single-country studies or datasets (with few exceptions, such as Präg & Mills, 2015). This literature shows, for example, that citizens are generally more accepting of adoption by lesbian couples than by gay male couples (Herek, 2002) or that religion is an important driver of attitudes toward homosexual adoption (Whitehead & Perry, 2014) and gay and lesbian parenting (Costa et al, 2014). However, the extent of and the reasons for cross-national differences in attitudes toward the partnership and parenthood rights of samesex couples have received less attention.…”

“…On the other hand, the various studies focusing on attitudes toward homosexuality (e.g., Hooghe & Meeusen, 2013;Kuntz, Davidov, Schwartz, & Schmidt, 2015;Kuyper et al, 2013;Takács & Szalma, 2013;van den Akker, van der Ploeg and Scheepers, 2013) or marriage and alternative forms of family formation (Treas, Lui, & Gubernskaya, 2014) have tended to address the general acceptance of "diverse family forms" or "diverse individuals" without addressing the issue of citizenship rights attached to this diversity. Exceptions to this include studies providing insights into attitudes toward the rights of same-sex couples in the United States (Doan, Loehr, & Miller, 2014;Miller & Chamberlain, 2013), Portugal (Costa et al, 2014), and Sweden and Norway (Jakobsson, Kotsadam, & Jakobsson, 2013). Yet few studies address attitudes toward parenthood rights or the issue of social rights for LGBT individuals or for alternative family forms, and almost none consider cross-national variation in these attitudes.…”