An investigation into the relationship between homophobic attitudes of female grade 12 students and parental attitudes.

Abstract

Prejudice can be defined as the possession of negative attitudes or beliefs that have the potential for people to behave in a discriminatory or hostile manner toward a person because they belong to a certain group. It is believed that attitudes are passed on and communicated inter-generationally. In this context attitudes were examined in a sample of Grade 12 pupils and their parents to establish whether there was a relationship between adolescents and parents attitudes toward homosexuals. Results support the hypothesis that parents' attitudes impact on daughters' attitudes but more specifically that daughters' attitudes are more closely related to mothers' attitudes than they are to fathers' attitudes. Findings for the Attitude Toward Lesbian and Gay men scale revealed that respondents demonstrated more negative attitudes toward gay men than they did toward lesbians, with male respondents (fathers) being more homophobic than females (mothers and daughters). These findings are discussed in terms oftheir implications for research, education strategies, and legislative amendments.