Predictors of homophobia in a sample of Romanian young adults: age, gender, spirituality, attachment styles, and moral disengagement

Abstract

ABSTRACT Romania has surprised the European Union when, in 2018, the Coalition for Family, along with the ruling Social Democrats party, organised a controversial referendum against the LGBT community, asking to redefine marriage as only being between a man and a woman rather than ‘two spouses’. The present research contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between a series of demographic variables (gender and age), spirituality (spiritual openness and spiritual support), attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance), moral disengagement and homophobia, by studying attitudes of 281 young Romanian adults, aged 18 to 44, within a small period of time after the above mentioned Referendum. A hierarchical regression analysis suggested that the most important predictor of homophobia was spiritual support, followed by spiritual openness, attachment anxiety and moral disengagement. Age and gender were not found to be significant predictors in our model. Results are discussed within the social and psychological context.