Religious Affiliation, Religiosity, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Parenting

ABSTRACT

Legalizing marriage and facilitating access to parenting for same-sex couples are controversial subjects in many countries. Based on a survey of 1,861 French heterosexual students, this study examined the effects of gender, methods gays and lesbians use to become parents, religious affiliation (Catholic vs. no religious affiliation), and religiosity (in Catholic participants) on attitudes to same-sex parenting. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 66 (M = 22.27, SD = 5.20), 67% were women, 31% described themselves as Catholic, and 69% had no religious affiliation. The results based on generalized estimating equation analyses indicate that women were more favorable to same-sex parenting than men and that participants across religious groups preferred “traditional” families composed of two, different-sex parents who do not use medically assisted procreation. Of all the methods same-sex couples use to become parents, respondents preferred adoption and rejected surrogacy. Furthermore, Catholic participants were less favorable of same-sex parenting in general than participants without religious affiliation. Higher levels of religiosity intensified that rejection. Gender does not mitigate this effect for Catholic participants, suggesting that religiosity plays a major and independent role in shaping attitudes to same-sex parenting.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes toward same-sex parenting
• adoption
• insemination
• surrogacy
• religiosity

Acknowledgment

We thank Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, Assistant Professor (University Bordeaux III) his proofreading and improvements to our text.

Notes

1. In order to test the homogeneity in attitudes toward same-sex parenting among agnostic, atheist, or without religion participants, chi-square tests for independence were performed that indicated no difference in attitudes between the three groups for single lesbian adoption, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 2.14, p > .05, single gay adoption, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 1.68, p > .05, gay couple adoption, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 1.45, p > .05, lesbian couple adoption, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 1.35, p > .05, insemination without in vitro fertilization, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 1.88, p > .05, insemination with in vitro fertilization, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 2.94, p > .05, surrogacy, χ² (2, N = 1,284) = 1.34, p > .05.

2. Reference category for attitudes toward same-sex parenting was “not in favor of same-sex parenting,” reference category for methods of becoming parent was “surrogacy.”

3. Reference category for religious affiliation was “Catholic participants.”

4. Due to a Hessian matrix singularity, the religiosity variable was split into a binary variable by the mean value (2.64), where Catholic participants with lower levels of religiosity were coded 0 and Catholic participants with higher levels of religiosity were coded 1. Catholic participants served as the reference category.

5. As GEE analysis only allows continuous or binary covariables, the field of study variable was dichotomized: Participants in HSS and PS were coded 0 and participants in Law and Other Fields were coded 1. Category 0 served as the reference category.