Mallinger, Gayle M
(2010)
PLACING CHILDREN IN NEED WITH GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES:INFLUENCES ON PLACEMENT DECISIONS.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Thousands of children throughout the United States are currently awaiting placement withadoptive families. The literature indicates that gay- and lesbian-headed households can wellmeet the needs of these children. Research suggests that sexual prejudice, religiousfundamentalism and attitudes about gay and lesbian adoption may influence practice decisionsregarding placement. This dissertation study examined the influences of religiousfundamentalism, sexual prejudice, contact with sexually diverse individuals, and attitudestowards gay men and lesbians as adoptive parents on intent to place children in need with gayand lesbian couples. A random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW)members was surveyed; 1000 surveys were distributed and 303 usable surveys were returned.Religious fundamentalism was measured using the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale(Altemeyer & Huntsberger, 2004), sexual prejudice was measured using the Attitudes towardGay Men and Lesbians (Herek, 1994) and attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parentswas measured using Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians as Adoptive Parents scale (Ryan,2000). To assess willingness to use gay or lesbian couples as adoptive parents, respondents wereasked to rank first and second choices on ten scenarios; two scenarios reflected easy to placechildren and eight hard to place children. A sizable minority of respondents failed to respond tothe scenarios. Those opting out tended to score lower on religious fundamentalism, sexualprejudice, and held more positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption.Further, some respondents never included gay or lesbian couples; these respondentstended to score higher on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and negative attitudes togays and lesbian couples as adoptive parents than those choosing at least one gay/lesbianresponse. Religious fundamentalism predicted sexual prejudice, which predicted negativeattitudes towards gays and lesbians as adoptive parents. Religious fundamentalism also directlyinfluenced attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents. In addition, personal contactwith sexually diverse individuals partially influenced sexual prejudice. Overall, the resultsindicate that some professionals are inappropriately influenced by their personal values.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
| Creators | Email | Pitt Username | ORCID  |
|---|
| Mallinger, Gayle M | gmm6@pitt.edu | GMM6 | |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
31 August 2010 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
27 August 2010 |
| Approval Date: |
31 August 2010 |
| Submission Date: |
30 August 2010 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Social Work > Social Work |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Gay; Lesbian; Social Work |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08302010-192722/, etd-08302010-192722 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 20:01 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:49 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9298 |
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