Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31299/ksi.28.2.3
High school students’ knowledge about homosexual orientation and tendency to discriminate against homosexual persons
Aleksandra Huić
orcid.org/0000-0002-7818-487X
; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Hana Greta Matković
; Nanobit
Abstract
The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between high school students’ knowledge about homosexual orientation, their perception of the presence of this topic in the curriculum and the tendency to discriminate against homosexual persons. In addition, we examined whether the levels of knowledge and discriminatory tendencies are related to students’ readiness to read additional educational material on the topic. The study was conducted online and included 312 respondents. We used the Knowledge of Homosexual Orientation Scale, the Tendency to Discriminate Against Homosexual People Scale and a few questions about educational factors. At the end of the survey, the students could choose whether they wanted to read additional educational material on the topic. The findings show that high school students’ knowledge about homosexual orientation is poor and that they are either very unsure of their own knowledge, or too sure of the wrong answers. Moreover, the students state that they do not often have the opportunity to hear about homosexual orientation within the curriculum. Their perception of these opportunities and their knowledge was not significantly related, although students who attend ethics classes had better knowledge than those who attend religious education. The correlation between knowledge and the tendency to discriminate proved significant, in that students with a higher level of knowledge about homosexual orientation were less likely to discriminate against homosexuals. Students with better knowledge about homosexuality and those less likely to discriminate chose to read additional educational material about homosexuality more commonly. These findings may help point us in the right direction as to what is missing in the Croatian education system, how we can improve knowledge about homosexuals and reduce the tendency to discriminate against them.
Keywords
homosexual orientation; knowledge about homosexuality; tendency to discriminate; educational factors
Hrčak ID:
248365
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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