College Students' Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men

Download or read book College Students' Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men written by Michael Robert Smith and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Purpose) The purpose of the study was to assess changes in college students' attitudes towards lesbians and gay men over a five-year span. A secondary purpose of the study was to build a foundation for assessing the relationship between spirituality and observed attitudes. Previous studies have only used religiosity, which is one of the most significant predictors of negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. It is asserted here that spirituality is a different construct, and because of this, it was hypothesized that it would not be related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. (Methodology) The Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men (ATLG) scale was administered to 544 college students at a midsize Midwestern University in late 1996, and followed up again in early 2002. The Spirituality Assessment Scale (SAS) was also administered in 2002. (Results) As expected, attitudes in 2002 were significantly more positive than in 1996, and as expected, level of spirituality was not significantly related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. (Conclusions) Results contribute to literature that indicates young adults are becoming increasingly more positive in their attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Students at higher education institutions are perhaps now more willing to address issues related toward homosexuality because of a societal shift in attitudes. The importance of educators taking active stances to create successful academic learning environments is discussed. Furthermore, spirituality was not related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. (Recommendations) Because spirituality was not related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, results give credence to the theory that spirituality and religion are different constructs. Researchers must carefully and deliberately operationalize these constructs when considering them for inclusion in future research.