Same-sex couples adoptions the relationship between beliefs, attitudes, external influences, and placement decisions /

by 1977- Spivey, Christina Alease

The current study investigated the relationships between (1) sex role beliefs and attitudes toward same-sex couple adoptions, (2) attitudes toward same-sex couple adoptions and intention to recommend adoptive placement with same-sex couples, (3) the existence of formal agency policies and attitudes, (4) the existence of formal agency policies and intention to recommend placement, (5) social work education and attitudes, and (6) social work education and intention to recommend placement. To that end, a mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from a purposive sample of 31licensed agency adoption workers and 34 former and current Title IV-E grant recipient social work students. The questionnaire was composed of several sections, including the newly-created Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Couples as Adoptive Parents Scale which underwent reliability and validity analysis as part of the study. Simple, multiple, and stepwise regression analyses, as well as t-tests, were used to test the above relationships, with results supporting the existence of relationships between sex role beliefs and attitudes; attitudes and placement recommendations; and social work education and placement recommendations (in part). Implications of the results, limitations of the investigation and directions for future research are presented.