THE RELATION BETWEEN ATTITUDES TOWARD SAME-SEX PARENTING AND THE TRADITIONAL BELIEFS REGARDING GENDER ROLES WITHIN THE FAMILY: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY

Currently in Italy the same-sex parenting is an emerging issue, especially in relation to the recent parliamentary discussion on the civil partnership recognition. In the public debate over same-sex parenting, recurrent objections contends that a) families with same-sex parents deny the basic assumptions of the family concept, seen only as a natural institution centred on the marriage between a man and a woman; b) parental capacities are assumed to be closely linked to the female and male identity, naturally programmed respectively for motherhood and fatherhood; c) homosexuality affects negatively on the exercise of parenting skills; d) children need both a mother and a father. In summary, despite the impressive research evidences on the efficacy of families with same-sex parents, many individuals are concerned about the health and well-being of children raised by homosexual parents and defend the traditional family based on conceptions of natural rights. Starting from this consideration, this paper presents the preliminary results of a study that explored the correlation between the attitudes toward same-sex and heterosexual parenting, the attitudes toward children well-being, the traditional beliefs regarding gender roles within the family, the homophobic conception about family and parenting, and the attitudes about the social structure in terms of the defence and justification of the status quo and the social system. The study involved 1726 participants (1588 heterosexuals, 94 homosexuals and 43 bisexuals; 1062 women and 664 men; mean age = 31.63; SD = 11.43). They were asked to complete a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The preliminary research findings showed the relationship between positive attitudes toward conventional family gender roles and negative attitudes toward same-sex-parenting. Furthermore, we verified that homophobic conceptions and social justification attitudes correlate with negative attitudes toward same-sex parenting. Our research findings suggest the possibility of effective interventions aimed to encourage more favourable attitudes toward same-sex parenting and deconstruct the traditional (homophobic) stereotypes about gender, family and parenting.