A comparison of African American and white college students’ affective and attitudinal reactions to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals: An exploratory study

Abstract

African American (n = 70) university students were compared with White students (n = 140) on their affective (homophobia) and attitudinal (homonegativity) reactions to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. The results initially suggested that African Americans had modestly higher homophobia and homonegativity scores than Whites. However, those ethnic differences vanished after controlling for frequency of church attendance, religious commitment, and socioeconomic status. For both ethnic groups, gender and religiosity variables significantly predicted homophobia and homonegativity. Men in both ethnic groups had significantly higher homophobia and homonegativity scores than their female counterparts. Lastly, additional regression analyses revealed that one aspect of African American culture—family practices—significantly predicted homophobia, but not homonegativity, above the predictive ability of religiosity. Implications of the results are discussed.