Czech psychology students‘ attitudes towards same-sex parenting

ABSTRACT

Czech society has been increasingly more liberal toward LGBTI individuals and their parenting rights, although the Czech legislative system still does not treat same-sex couples equally to heterosexual couples. Attitudes of professionals who work with children and families are particularly important, as prejudice might be harmful in these circumstances. The present study aimed to evaluate the attitudes of future psychologists, participants were 164 psychology students from a university in Prague, the Czech Republic. They were presented with a vignette depicting a situation of a couple in a restaurant with their 4-year-old son who gets upset during the meal. The vignette was followed by a set of Likert scale items evaluating the parents’ and the child’s behaviour. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the eight versions of the vignette varying by the way how the couple solved the situation, the sexual orientation of the parents, and the gender of the acting parent. Overall, the couples were rated more favourably in the positive parenting situation than in the negative, and participants evaluated gay and lesbian parents more favourably than heterosexual parents. Results are discussed taking into account specific sample characteristics and the social climate regarding LGBTI rights in the Czech society.

KEYWORDS:

• Same-sex parenting
• modern sexual prejudice
• quasi-experiment
• Czech Republic
• psychology students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Modernisation theorists have suggested that not only economic development affects people’s values, but also the cultural heritage, including religion and the political context. Indeed, post-communist and Eastern Orthodox countries have been found the be more unfavourable to homosexuality than Western European and Roman Catholic countries (Gerhards, 2010; Štulhofer & Rimac, 2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Tušl

Martin Tušl, M.Sc., completed his Master’s degree in Psychology at Charles University in Prague in 2017. During his post-graduate internship he worked as a research trainee at the University of Porto studying cross-national differences in undergraduate psychology students' attitudes towards LG parenting. He worked then as a research assistant at the University of Bologna focusing on mental health in the workplace. He is now about to start his Ph.D. in Work and Organisational Psychology.

Jorge Gato

Jorge Gato, Ph.D., is a Researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto (FPCEUP), Portugal. He is currently interested in the parenting plans of LGBT individuals, as well as in the training of professionals who work with current or prospective LGBT-parented families.

Fiona Tasker

Fiona Tasker, Ph.D., is a Reader in Psychology at the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, specialising in family psychology and systemic family therapy. Using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques, Fiona has published widely on the psychosocial implications of both non-traditional and new family forms for parents and children in heterosexual and LGBTQ-parented families.

Victor Figueroa

Víctor Figueroa Guíñez, Ph.D., is a Researcher at Universidad de Artes, Ciencias y Comunicación in Chile. His research focusses on lesbian and gay parenting from a socio-cultural and historical perspective, particularly within Chilean society. He is also interested in studying cross-national differences in undergraduate students' attitudes towards LG parenting.