Abstract
Parents and peers are key sources of information on a variety of sexual topics. Parents and peers differ in the content and frequency of the sexual messages they convey, but both sources influence the development of sexual attitudes. Gender differences in messages about homosexuality have been underexplored. The current study examined gender differences in the messages that youth received about homosexuality from parents and peers during their formative years (ages 5–18), focusing on messages conveyed within and across genders. Data were drawn from 429 undergraduate students (55% female) between the ages of 18 and 24 (M = 18.81, SD = 1.00). Results showed that positive and negative messages constitute independent dimensions of socialization on homosexuality. Across sources, women and men reported receiving more positive than negative messages about homosexuality. Multi-level regression models confirmed hypotheses that peers provide more positive messages than parents and that female sources provide more positive messages than male sources. In turn, male sources provide more negative messages than female sources. Moreover, cross-level interactions supported expectations of gendered experiences of socialization on homosexuality. Women reported receiving more positive messages from same-gender sources than men, and men report receiving more negative messages from same-gender sources than women. The gendered pattern of messages aligns with the larger body of research on differences in women’s and men’s attitudes toward homosexuality. Overall, the findings are a reminder that the messages individuals receive about homosexuality continue to be explicitly and implicitly interwoven with expectations concerning gender norms.
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The skew and kurtosis of Negative Messages were both above 1.0. We therefore created a log transformed version of this variable. We ran all the analyses with the transformed variable. The pattern of results did not change meaningfully compared to those with the non-transformed variable. We report the results from the models that included the non-transformed variable to ease interpretation of parameter estimates.
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Foust, M.D., Ward, L.M., Hagelskamp, C. et al. Parent and Peer Messages About Homosexuality: Considering the Role of Gender. Sexuality & Culture 25, 597–622 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09785-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09785-7