Attitudes Of University Students In Lebanon Towards Homosexuality

Attitudes Of University Students In Lebanon Towards HomosexualityRecently, al intimately all cultures have witnessed increasing trends in queerness. As a result, much and to a greater extent than organizations protecting jolly, paederastic, and effeminate rights have emerged. star factor that seems to impinge on the emotional and affable develop handst of rattlings and lesbians is the perspectives of society toward them (Bowen Bourjeois, 2001). much(prenominal) research has been conducted since late 1970s focusing on the factors that affect heterosexuals lieus toward homophiles and lesbians (Whitley, 1988). Gender, religion, education, as well as race atomic number 18 some of the factors that play a position in de depotining these attitudes (Whitley, 1988 Negy Eisenman, 2005 Landen Innala, 2002 Grapes, 2006). Studies conducted in the United States, Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong, Sweden and Canada have testifyd that most attitudes towards gays and lesbians ar e shun in oecu handsical (Negy Eisenman, 2005 Landen Innala, 2002 Hopwood Connors, 2002 Schellenberg, Hirt, Sears, 1999).It is suspected that the prevailing attitudes in Lebanon are correspondent to those in the countries handstioned earlier. However, because of the lack of concrete research on this topic in Lebanon, it is necessary that a regard be conducted in order to investigate the attitudes towards gays and lesbians among university students in Lebanon.The purpose of this take in was to determine the attitudes that students at universities in Lebanon have towards gays and lesbians. Since preceding(prenominal) research have shown gender and preference of major to be of great importance in determining university students attitudes towards homosexuality, this orbit in addition compared the attitudes of male vs. female, as well as Social wisdoms and artistry students vs. Natural sciences and course students.Review of the LiteratureOne of the main problems associ ated with homosexuality in the Middle East is the cast out attitudes that Arabs have towards gay custody and lesbians. These attitudes are further complicated by international politics which lento down social progress in Middle Eastern countries. As a result, strict Arab morality is imposed in these countries as a means of defense against Western trends that promote female nudity and homosexuality. However, these minus attitudes could not be generalized as homophobia because they are directly think to political, social, religious and cultural issues (Whitaker, 2006). Contrary to what many people believe, the attitudes towards gay men and lesbians are instead negative even in western countries much(prenominal) as the United States, Australia, Sweden and Canada (Negy Eisenman, 2005 Landen Innala, 2002 Hopwood Connors, 2002 Schellenberg, Hirt, Sears, 1999). Previous studies on attitudes of undergraduate university students particularizedally indicate mostly negative att itudes, with fluctuations that depend on factors such as gender, education, religionism, as well as, race (Whitley, 1988 Negy Eisenman, 2005 Landen Innala, 2002 Grapes, 2006 Jonathan, 2008). Because of the lack of empirical evidence on the attitudes in Lebanon towards gay men and lesbians, it is important that this have be conducted so as to set stable grounds for this issue. The purpose of this sketch was to measure the attitudes of undergraduate university students in Lebanon towards gay men and lesbians.Hopwood and Connors (2002) examined the attitudes of undergraduate students toward homosexuality at a university in Australia. The first hypothesis was that homophobic males were most likely to be religious and politically conservative. The second hypothesis say that take aims of homophobia would be more prevalent among business majors than humanities majors.The prototype consisted of 104 students from two faculties 58% were registered in a humanities class, time 42% were registered in a business class, and 65% of the sample was females. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire composed of leash parts. The first part included The Heterosexual Attitudes to Homosexuals questionnaire which mensural the attitudes of the participants toward issues such as befriending or social equality for homosexuals. The second part of the questionnaire measured the participants misgiving of AIDS/human immunodeficiency virus with the use of the Fear of AIDS scale by B verbo tenon et al. The third part involved the measurement of demographic variables intended to get hold participants religiosity and political views.The results validated the hypotheses tested in this research. Fear of HIV/AIDS seemed to be the most powerful indicator of homophobia among men, with a correlation coefficient of 0.64. Gender was overly a predictor of homophobia males exhibited more negative attitudes towards homosexuals than women. The results withal showed that religious i ndividuals evince more homophobia than nonreligious ones. Last but not least, faculty member major aided in predicting homophobia as hypothesized, business majors expressed higher takes of homophobia and fear of HIV/AIDS than did the humanities students.In another(prenominal) similar study conducted by Schellenberg et al. (1999) at the University of Windsor in Canada investigated the attitudes of undergraduate university students toward gay men and lesbians. Comparisons were to be made on the basis of the participants gender, faculty, and year at university. One hypothesis was that participants enrolled in Arts or Social science faculties would have more verificatory attitudes than those enrolled in Science or argumentation faculties. Another hypothesis was that females were more likely to have positive attitudes than men toward gay and lesbian individuals.This studys sample consisted of 199 undergraduate students (101 males and 98 females) enrolled at the University of Windso r, who were leased so as to increase the chances that they would be enrolled in different faculties. Participants were asked general questions such as their year at college, their major, as well as their age and gender. Their attitudes were measured using the short form of Hereks Attitudes toward Lesbians and fairylike men scale which was designed to yield a subscale which measures attitudes toward lesbians, and other that measures attitudes toward gay men.The results of this study indicated that attitudes toward gay men lurchd as a function of the students faculties that is to say that students in the faculties of Arts or Social Sciences had more positive attitudes than those in the faculties of Business or Science. Moreover, gender and year at university had a big component part women had more positive attitudes as compared to men regardless of their year at university. However, although new male students held negative attitudes toward gay men, these attitudes improved with th e years fatigued at university. As for attitudes towards lesbians, gender and faculty played little or no role in determining the attitudes. However, the attitudes became more positive with the epoch at university.Along the same lines, Negy and Eisenman (2005) studied the attitudes and affects of African American and clean-living college students toward lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate how enculturation and religiosity might control the attitudes toward lesbian, gay and bisexuals. Because of inconsistent findings in the prehistorical, no orchis hypothesis was made. Previous studies regarding African Americans showed that they seem to be more apparent than whites to twain see homosexuality as incorrect and to support gay rights laws. As a result, this study aimed to investigate African American attitudes while considering variables which may influence homophobia such as culture, religiosity, and sociodemographics.The st udys sample consisted of 77 African Americans (22 male, 48 female) and 143 non-Hispanic whites (38 male, 105 female) who attended a public university in southeastward U.S. 90% of the African Americans and 94% of the Whites were exclusively heterosexuals, and 89% of the African Americans and 76% of the Whites were Christian. In order to measure the three variables mentioned previously, several questionnaires were handed out to the participants. Questionnaires included a Demographic Sheet which inquires the age, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and sexual predilection of the participants. It also inquired the level of parental education as well as the years of education of the participants parents so as to infer the socioeconomic shape of each. Moreover, participants commitment to religion was assessed base on two measures one of which is the frequency of church building attendance, and the second includes reasons for believing in a religion. The third questionnaire was a Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, constructed to measure social desirability. The fourth questionnaire was the business leader of Homophobia by Hudson Ricketts which measured homophobia among the participants. A fifth questionnaire was the Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuality (HATH) which measured attitudes and beliefs regarding gay and lesbian individuals. Finally, a sixth questionnaire, African American civilization Scale, was handed out to the African American participants only if to measure how much African American respondents were absorbed into a traditional African American culture.The results indicated that even though African American participants affective and attitudinal answers to lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals may be more negative than those of White students, this difference indistinct when regularity of church attendance, religious dedication, and SES were considered. So for both, African Americans and Whites, the three variables church a ttendance, religiosity and SES served as predictors of homonegativity.Bowen and Bourgeois (2001) examined the attitudes toward lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals based on certain social psychology theories. They first hypothesized that having had more LGB acquaintances in the past tense would yield more positive existing attitudes. The second hypothesis was that respondents were more likely to rate their personal attitudes toward LGB more positively than their friends or true students as a result of pluralistic ignorance. The third hypothesis predicted that students attitudes would change with regards to the sign of the zodiac halls (i.e students from the same residence hall would share the same attitude) based on the Dynamic Social Impact Theory. The last hypothesis stated that present interlocutor with LGB individuals would yield more positive approaches regardless of the respondents past contact with LGBs.Questionnaires were sent out by mail to 240 undergraduate stud ents in two residence halls (6 Floors in building A and 5 floors in building B), however only 109 students completed them (48 females and 51 males). The questionnaire included only a Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Attitudes questionnaire made of a 7 point Likert type scale. Respondents were inquired to provide three resolutions the first some his/her attitude toward LGB, the second about his/her beliefs about how friends would respond, and third they had to rate how they vista the regular student would reply. Respondents were also asked about the number of previous LGB acquaintances, as they were asked to indicate how many openly LGB individuals resided in their residence halls and on their individual floors.The results of this study confirmed the hypotheses constructed at the very beginning. Respondents actually did represent themselves as having more positive attitudes towards LGB individuals than their friends and the typical student, proving the pluralistic ignorance speculation. Mo reover, consistent with the contact hypothesis, respondents who referred to as a couple of(prenominal) as one or two explicitly LGB students in their residence halls or on their floor held considerably more positive attitudes than students who knew none. whatsoever limitations of this study could be the small sample, the ethnic homogeneity of the respondents. Moreover, the low response rates could have been an indication of bias since it is possible that the students with more negative attitudes did not respond.In an interesting research article by Landen and Innala (2002), the personal effects of a biological description on attitudes towards gays and lesbians in Sweden were examined. The purpose of this study was to test whether attitudes towards homosexuals differed between people who support the biological explanation and those who supported a psychological explanation. Comparisons were also to be made between the attitudes of men and those of women, as well as between an old age stem and a young age free radical.A sample of 992 people was willy-nilly selected from the National Registration and was sent questionnaires by mail. 668 out of the 992 people returned the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions that covered the participants beliefs about the origin of homosexuality, the integration of homosexuals in the society as well as homosexual friendships. Participants ranged between 18 and 70 years of age, with the median age being 44 years.The results of this study supported previous findings that proposed that individuals supporting the biological explanation of homosexuality had more tolerant attitudes toward it (CITE). Moreover, the more participants were acquainted with gays and lesbians, the more liberal attitudes they held toward them. Also, the results of this study showed that women and the younger age group tended to have more positive attitudes towards homosexuals than those who believed in a psychological explanation of homosexuality. Out of the 668 people, a little more than half(prenominal) of them (51%) believed in a biological explanation, whereas the remaining 49% believed in a psychological explanation. This study supports theories of the prominence of positive attitudes among people who believed that homosexuality had a biological origin, as well as people who had more personal contacts with homosexuals (CITE).In an cause to inspect the prevalent attitudes towards homosexuals among Turkish university students, Cirakoglu (2006) aimed to examine the students beliefs regarding the causes of homosexuality. The study also aimed to compare how participants attitudes varied towards the labels gay and lesbian. Finally, the attitudes of participants who had had previous social contact with homosexuals were measured. Cirakoglu (2006) hypothesized that the label gay would elicit the most negative attitudes, whereas the label lesbian would trigger more positive ones. And, in relation to previous stud ies, he hypothesized that participants who had prior social contact with a homosexual would have more positive attitudes than those who hadnt.Participants of this research included 334 private university students (140 women and 194 men) in Turkey. Students were given questions regarding their demographic information, as they were also given a 50-item scale for the causes of homosexuality and a 19-item attitude scale. When asked about previous contact with at least one homosexual, 41.82% of participants reported having had contact with a homosexual.The results of Cirakoglus study seemed to verify the hypotheses stated at the beginning. The label lesbian seemed to elicit more positive attitudes than did the term gay or homosexual. It seemed that the term gay triggered the most negative attitudes among the three labels (CITE). Moreover, men had rather negative attitudes towards homosexuals, unlike women who held more positive attitudes. As hypothesized earlier and in unanimity to prev ious research, participants who reported having previous social contact with homosexuals held more positive attitudes than participants who reported no prior social contact. It is interesting to note that, participants who had no social contact with homosexuals seemed to believe that homosexuality stems from a psychological or physiological disorder participants who reported prior contact, however, believed that homosexuality is a selection of lifestyle (CITE).Since federation Africa became the fifth country to legalize homosexual marriages in 2006, Mwaba (2009) studied the attitudes and beliefs of South African students regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriages. Even though South African law protected its homosexual citizens rights and bans any sort of favoritism against them, the general attitudes of students remained negative.Mwabas sample was made up of 150 undergraduate students at a university in Western Cape in South Africa. These students were hire during a time of i ntense debate after the validation of homosexual marriages in 2006. The samples mean age was 18.3 years, 83% of which were females. Also, 68% of the sample students were Christians. An 18-item questionnaire was apply to measure the attitudes toward homosexual marriages and homosexuality.The results signified rather conservative attitudes among the sample, as almost 44% persuasion that homosexuality should be socially unacceptable rather than acceptable in South Africa. However, when it came to granting homosexuals equal rights, 41% only believed that the giving medication was right in doing so, with the majority of the sample (59%) opposed it. 37% thought there was nothing wrong in discriminating against homosexuals, and 71% indicated that they thought the marriage of two people of the same sex to be strange. and overall, those who believed that homosexual marriages should be legalized were almost equal to those who were against it (51% and 49% respectively).One of the factors t hat seems to affect peoples attitudes towards homosexuality is their level of education. In one of her studies, Grapes (2006) investigated the relationship between the level of education and the attitudes towards homosexuals and their rights. Grapes hypothesized that as the level of education increases, the attitudes towards homosexuals become more liberal. She also hypothesized, in accordance to literature, that females will have more tolerant attitudes than males.Grapes obtained data from the General Social Survey which was conducted by the National Opinion explore Center at the University of Chicago (Grapes, 2006). Her two independent variables were gender and level of education, and her dependent variable was the attitudes toward gays and gay rights. The attitudes were measured by choosing four specific questions that address homosexuality in the General Social Survey (Grapes, 2006). The sample consisted of 740 participants.Consistent with previous studies, Grapes (2006) resul ts prove that gender plays a big role in determining the attitudes toward gay rights and homosexuals. Females held more positive attitudes than did males. Moreover, Grapes established a multivariate relationship between level of education, gender and attitudes toward gay rights (2006). She put in that males who had a degree demoralise than high school were 36% more inclined to be against equal rights for homosexuals. Whereas females with a graduate diploma are 28% more likely to be supportive of homosexuals rights than females with an education lower than high school (Grapes, 2006).Congruently, Herek (1988) used a sample of 405 students to study what contributes to heterosexuals reaction formation to gay and lesbian individuals. First, he wanted to determine how heterosexuals attitudes were impact by gender. Second, he inquired about the contribution of social psychological factors to the attitude formation toward homosexuals. Last, he questioned whether attitudes differ toward l esbians and gays men (Herek, 1988).Hereks sample included 405 students (226 females, 179 males) from six different universities in the United States. The participants presented information about their religious backgrounds and how a great deal they attend religious services, as well as the number of their gay/lesbian acquaintances. An Attitude Toward Lesbians and Gays (ATLG) scale composed of a 20-item likert scale was actual by Herek (1988). The scale had two ten-item subscales half of which measure attitudes toward lesbians, whereas the other half measures attitudes toward gay men.Hereks results (1988) proved that male participants held more negative attitudes than females on both the ATL (Attitudes Toward Lesbians) and ATG (Attitudes Toward Gays) scale, yet they held less negative attitudes toward lesbians. Hereks study also verified that attitudes toward homosexuals are influenced by participants loyalty to traditional gender and family values, as well as by the level of their religious commitments and previous experience with gay men and lesbians (Herek, 1988). Last but not least, and in accordance to the Pluralistic ignorance theory in Bowen and Bourgeois study (2001), participants who held negative attitudes were likely to presume that their friends had similar attitudes towards homosexuals.Likewise, attitudes of undergraduate university students toward gay men and lesbians were investigated in a study conducted by Engstrom and Sedlacek (1997). The study aimed to investigate whether heterosexual college students at a southeast university held negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Moreover, the study investigated the type of situations in which negative feelings toward homosexuals were expressed (Engstrom Sedlacek, 1997).The studys randomly selected sample consisted of 224 heterosexual university students half of which were males, and half of which were females. Engstrom and Sedlacek (1997) administered the SAS Sexual predilection Survey to measure the students attitudes toward gays and lesbians. The survey contained a likert-type scale ranging from one to louvre it consisted of ten statements that covered personal, social, and academic situations. Three different forms of the survey were produced and mailed to participants one referred to student (with no specified sexual orientation), the second referred to Gay male student, and the third referred to lesbian student, (Engstrom Sedlacek, 1997).Engstrom and Sedlaceks study confirmed that male students attitudes were more negative toward gay men than toward lesbians. It seemed that participants displayed more intolerant attitudes in situations where they moldiness interact with gay males in public. Moreover, disdain the fact that women hold more negative attitudes toward lesbians, in this study, females had surprisingly more negative attitudes toward gay males (Engstrom Sedlacek, 1997). However, and despite the negative attitudes toward homosexuals, participants see med to be infuriated at the thought of the physical encroachment of a homosexual. This study gives insight as to how and in what situations stereotypical attitudes could be formed and allows further implications for practice (Engstrom Sedlacek, 1997).