Abstract
Despite the decline in prejudice towards LGBT people, the issue of parenthood is still controversial with negative attitudes towards LGBT parents being openly expressed. This study aimed to examine attitudes towards parenting by same-sex couples using a vignette design. Parenting condition (parent’s negative vs positive reaction), active parent’s gender (mother vs father) and family composition (different-sex vs same-sex couple) were varied to test differences in the evaluations of parenting, child behaviour, family environment, social distance and willingness to grant rights. 392 heterosexual and cisgender students from the University of Zagreb (87% female, 13% male), aged 18 to 37, participated in an online study. After reading one of the eight vignettes, participants evaluated parenting, child behaviour, family environment, social distance and rights of the family described in the vignette. The results showed that parenting and family environment were evaluated as better, and participants were less convinced that the child’s behaviour is the result of parents’ relationship in the positive parenting condition than in the negative. Social distance was lower towards parents in the positive parenting condition than in the negative and – unexpectedly – towards same-sex in comparison to different-sex couples. Participants were more inclined to grant family rights to parents from the positive than to those from the negative parenting condition. Although other results suggested unbiased attitudes towards same-sex couples’ parenting, participants were less inclined to grant same-sex couples family rights in comparison to different-sex couples. The findings reflect an important mechanism underlying the stability of prejudice – a resistance towards generalising attitudes from individual cases to a group. This can be used in efforts to confront prejudice against parenting among LGBT people
Highlights
While negative attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people as parents still exist, options for them to become parents are increasingly becoming available in the West (Baumle and D’Lane, 2017)
The results showed that parenting and family environment were evaluated as better, and participants were less convinced that the child’s behaviour is the result of parents’ relationship in the positive parenting condition than in the negative
Follow-up ANOVAs were conducted for significant multivariate effects to detect differences in the evaluations of parenting skills, family environment and social distance
Summary
While negative attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people as parents still exist, options for them to become parents are increasingly becoming available in the West (Baumle and D’Lane, 2017). Using a vignette design provides an opportunity to approach that goal by studying reactions to a hypothetical but specific event. Such an approach bears more ecological validity in comparison to a classical survey. Previous research in Croatia was mostly conducted using correlational design and has been focussed on traditional and modern prejudice about gays and lesbians as well as support for their rights (e.g. Huić, Jugović and Kamenov, 2015; Kamenov, Huić and Jelić, 2019). In order to complement the previous findings, this study aimed to research the evaluations of same-sex parenting and child’s behaviour among heterosexual and cisgender students by varying parent’s behaviour towards the child, active parent’s gender and family composition (different-sex vs same-sex couple), using a vignette study design
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