Attitudes of students towards parental competence and child developmental aspects of homosexual, and lesbian couples : A cross-cultural comparison between Portugal and the Netherlands

N. Burgers

There is a big diversity between countries in the opinions, attitudes and existing laws toward homosexuality in general and same-sex parenting. Even dough same sex couples do not differ in parenting quality compared to heterosexual couples, a father-mother family is still the norm in Western society. Lesbian mothers do encounter negative reactions experiences due to this non-traditional family composition, which influences their parenting experiences. To evaluate diversities in attitudes toward parental competence and child developmental aspects of homosexual and lesbian parents between countries the cultural theory of Hofstede was used. This theory uses the dimensions of masculinity and femininity to differentiate cultures. Within more masculine countries there is a stronger gender role discourse, homosexuality and same sex parenting threatens these stronger gender roles, which leads to more rejections and negative attitudes. Within feminine countries there is much more equality in gender roles within the family and therefore more acceptance. Therefore it was assumed that, attitudes toward parental competences and child developmental aspects of homosexual and same sex parents are more positive in more feminine countries compared to more masculine countries. This was assessed by comparing students from a more masculine country (Portugal) with students from a more feminine scoring country (the Netherlands). A total of 564 of Portuguese and 273 participated in this study. Exploratory analysis conducted on item level showed that Dutch students were more positive about the recommendation of homosexual and lesbian couples as adoptive parents compared to the Portuguese students. Composition of the family also did matter within Portugal the heterosexual couple were more positively evaluated compared to the homosexual and lesbian couple on different aspects of parental competence. However, composition of the family (heterosexual, homosexual, or lesbian parents) did not matter within the Netherlands for parental competence.