Title:
Representation, forgiveness, and well-being in attitudes toward same-gender relationships
Author:
Melissa P. Lemons
Thesis Advisor:
L. Mickey Fenzel
Committee Member:
Gina M. Magyar-Russell
Committee Member:
Jill L. Snodgrass
Committee Member:
Elizabeth A. Maynard
Committee Member:
Amanda Thomas
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2017
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Existing measures of sexual prejudice do not include religious factors. English-speaking adults recruited using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk participated in three surveys designed to test the factor structure of a questionnaire that measures religious aspects of sexual prejudice (homonegativity and heteronormativity), the ARSOQ (Affirming or Rejecting Sexual Orientation Questionnaire). The first round of scale development sampled 104 adults (44 females and 60 females, mean age = 37) using a 25-item ARSOQ. Maximum Likelihood extraction with direct oblimin rotation resulted in 19 items (α = .93) and 3 factors (Acceptance, Heteronormativity, and Rejection). Total scores on the ARSOQ correlated, positively and strongly with other measures of sexual prejudice, including Attitudes toward Gay Men (r = .90, p .001) and Attitudes toward Lesbians (r = .87, p .001). PCA with promax rotation in a sample of 259 adults (126 females and 133 males; mean age = 35) resulted in a 17 items (α = .96, p = .05) and three factors (Accepting, Heteronormativity, and Rejecting). Scores on the ARSOQ correlated with the ATLG-R-S (r = .77, p greater than .01) and the Tolerance subscale of the ARBS (r = .77, p greater than .01). PCA with promax rotation in a third sample (334 adults; 160 females and 174 adults; mean age = 32) resulted in 12 items (α = .93, p greater than .05) and 2 correlated factors (Acceptance and Heteronormativity, r = .67, p greater than .05). The high correlation suggested a single factor and revision of the scale, emphasizing compassion. A MANOVA revealed a non-significant influence of salience condition (Golden Rule, Sexual Rights, or no salience manipulation) on the measures of sexual prejudice, F(10, 642) = .82, p = .61; Wilk’s λ = .98, partial η2 = .01. A statistically significant effect of religious group affiliation (Unaffiliated, Christian, Other Religion) on measures of sexual prejudice was observed, F(10, 642) = 8.99, p greater than .001; Wilk’s λ = .77, partial η2 = .12. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted with total scores on the ARSOQ as the dependent variable, which showed that orthodoxy, age, gender, sexual orientation, and education contributed significantly to the regression model, R2 =.29, F (5, 328) = 26.48.36, p greater than .001 and accounted for 29% of the variance in ARSOQ scores. Including God representation, well-being, and forgiveness explained a total of 33% of the variance in ARSOQ scores or an additional 4% of the variance, R2 = .33, F (4, 324) = 18, p greater than .001. With all variables included in the model, only orthodoxy (ß= .95, p greater than .001) and well-being (ß = -.14, p greater than .001) were significant predictors of ARSOQ scores: Predicted ARSOQ scores = 13.58 + .95 (orthodoxy) -.14 (well-being). Additional analyses revealed that among participations with Moderate forgiveness scores both orthodoxy and well-being predicted ARSOQ scores, which was not found for Low or High forgiveness. A limitation of the study, the large number of religiously unaffiliated participants, also pointed to the diversity of atheist and agnostic individuals and the need to intentionally measure that diversity in future research.
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Pastoral Counseling
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
LemonsMP-17
