REACTIONS TO CHILD-CUSTODY DECISIONS INVOLVING HOMOSEXUAL AND HETEROSEXUAL PARENTS

This study examined the effects of homophobia, subject gender, and gen der and sexual orientation of petitioning parent on attitudes about ju dgements in child custody cases. A total of 274 introductory psycholog y students participated in both phases of the research. In Phase One, subjects completed the Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuals Scale and the Kinsey Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale that were embedde d in a general questionnaire on social attitudes. In Phase Two, these same subjects were asked to give their opinions about the outcome of c ontrived child custody cases where the parent winning custody was homo sexual or heterosexual. As expected, there was less support for a homo sexual than a heterosexual parent. This was particularly noticeable fo r male subjects. Unexpectedly, mothers were not favoured over fathers, but instead subjects favoured parents of the same gender. Further, su bjects low in homophobia reacted more favourably to a homosexual paren t than a heterosexual parent, while the reverse was true for those hig h in homophobia. Implications of the results for public and judicial a ttitudes about custody decisions were considered.