Investigation of the role of parent attitudes, SES and religiosity in university students’ discriminative attitudes

Abstract

The goal of the current study is to examine the role of parental attitudes, social economic status, and individuals' religious beliefs in university students' attitudes towards gender, racial, religious, and homosexual discrimination. The sample of the study consisted of 643 (408 male and 335 female) university students attending Sport Science and Physical Education programs in large urban public universities in Turkey. Demographic questionnaire and Discriminative Attitudes inventory were employed. Multiple regression was applied to understand and document the predictive role of the study variables in the participants' homosexual discriminative attitudes. The researchers found that perceived parental attitudes and religiosity had statistically group differences in the individuals' discriminatory attitudes. Moreover, the findings indicated that parental attitudes, social economic status, and religious belief were significant predictors of university students' attitudes towards homosexuality. The study implications and future directions were discussed.