SOCIAL WORKERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER ADOPTIONS

<p>This study explores the attitudes of social workers in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adoptions. Race, gender, generation, position and prior LGBT training are factors that can positively or negatively impact social workers’ biases towards LGBT adoptions. Researchers contacted adoption agencies whom agreed to partake in the 26-question survey, including eight demographic questions and an 18 item scale. The current study used an adapted version of the Attitude Toward Gay Men and Lesbians as Adoptive Parent Scale (APS) (α = .95). There were 28 survey respondents, however two surveys were discontinued due to incomplete informed consents. A series of Mann-Whitney <em>U</em> tests were conducted to find if two independent, yet similar groups of people answered questions significantly different. Results show that men answered two questions significantly different than women participants who answered the same questions, and that administrative workers answered four questions differently than front-line service providers answered the same four questions. Limitations of this study include time; sample size; and an overrepresentation of women, heterosexuals and Caucasians. Further research should be done on this population, because they may directly impact the progression of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adoptions.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Social Work

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Social Work

Year dc:date.available

2015

Authors dc:creator

• Kemper, Christina Nicole
• Reynaga, Natalie Jazmin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lizano, Erica

• adoption
• LGBT
• biases
• attitudes
• social work
• child welfare

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/149

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu:etd-1180