Abstract:

The literature show that children raised by two parents of the same sex, have the same opportunities - as children who have been raised by heterosexual parents - to reach psycho-physical well-being, and to establish meaningful relationships with the peer group.

In fact, the literature has underlined that sexual orientation of the parents does not affect the children’s psychosocial development, but it appear to be influenced by the degree of agreement, the sharing of responsibilities, economic stability, and family adaptation.

In reference to the psychological development of children of homosexual parents, the literature highlights how adolescent children manifest a life full of satisfying relationships both in the family context and with peers, showing a lower presence of externalizing problems compared to peers who live with heterosexual parents.

The aim of the research is to analyze, in a group of young Sicilian adults, the relationship between the presence of homophobic prejudices and attitudes towards same-sex couples who decide to adopt a child. In particular we hypothesized that a high level of homophobic behaviors and cognitions influence the negative attitude towards homosexual couples who resort to adoption to build a family.

The research involved 91 university students (including 72 women and 19 men) aged between 19 and 30 years.

The participants completed the following instruments: Attitudes Towards Same-Sex Couples as Adoptive Parents Scale (ATSCAP) to evaluate attitudes towards adoptive parents of the same sex, and Italian version of Homophobia Scale (HS) in order to detect the possible homophobic attitudes, explained through three macro-factors main: behavior/negative affect (Factor 1), affect/behavioral aggression (Factor 2), and negative cognition (Factor 3).

The results show how the behavior/negative affect (Factor 1) influences both the affective reactions and the general level of ATSCAP. On the behavioral level, in fact, homophobia pushes the subject to transform fear into aggression, violent behavior and aversion. Furthermore, the analyzes show that subjects with high scores in the negative cognition (Factor 3) have high scores in personal affective reaction.

These results are confirmed by the literature, which emphasizes that the homophobic attitude appears as an irrational fear and a real disgust for homosexual people (emotional aspect), which arises from stereotypes and prejudices about homosexuality (cognitive aspect), and manifests itself in behaviors aimed at humiliating homosexuals (behavioral aspect).

The research highlights the way, on the cognitive level, homophobic subjects consider their negative reaction towards the homosexual person to be normal and justified, although, unlike common phobias, homophobia does not compromise the social functioning of the subject.

Keywords:

Identity, Homophobia, Adoptive parents, Prejudice, Family context.