Attitudes and Communication of Homophobia in Fraternities: Separating the Impact of Social Adjustment Function from Hetero-Identity Concern

Abstract

This manuscript examines the social adjustment attitude function that drives homophobia and homophobic communication in fraternities. The social adjustment function underlying fraternity members' negative attitudes about homosexual fraternity brothers relates to the desire to secure and maintain cohesive male-male relationships within a fraternity (i.e., brotherhood), facilitate the recruitment of new members, and improve or maintain social relationships with sorority members. Ninety-eight fraternity men from a mid-sized, urban, private university were sampled. As predicted, path analytic results indicated that the social adjustment function was directly related to attitudes toward homosexual fraternity members. Attitudes toward homosexual fraternity members and participants' negative communication regarding gays was mediated by members' hetero-identity concern. Attitudes, however, were directly related to perceptions of others' communication. The implications of these results for fraternities specifically and male-male relationships in general are discussed.

Keywords:

• Attitude Function
• Fraternity
• Homophobia
• Homophobic Communication

Notes

Note: ∗p < .05

^† p < .01.

The format of both of the open-ended questions seems to have contributed to a high non-response for this particular item. The question was embedded into the introduction and may have been mistaken for instructions rather than a question.

Participants' responses containing multiple themes for either statement were identified infrequently: for statement one, 62% of respondents did not provide a second response, and 91% of respondents did not provide a third response; for statement two, 72% of participants did not provide a second response, and 92% of participants did not provide a third response.

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Miami, 2003.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey A. Hall

Jeffrey A. Hall (MA, Wake Forest University, 2001) is a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California

Betty H. La France

Betty H. La France (PhD, Michigan State University, 1998) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University.