Gender-Related Attitudes toward Homosexuality in Greece

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relevance of the “Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men” (ATLG) Scale developed by G. M. Herek to the Greek society. The study consists of two stages or sub-studies. At the first stage, the sample consisted of 186 undergraduate university students and at the second, 254 undergraduate university students, who studied at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace in Komotini, Greece. Methodologically speaking, our research relied on the methods of descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis (Cronbach’s α, composite reliability and average variance extracted) and t-test for independent sample. The results of the first stage showed that the two factors, men’s homophobia and women’s homophobia, accounted for 58% of the total variance. At the second stage, three confirmatory factor analyses were performed: men’s homophobia, women’s homophobia and total homophobia. We also found gender-related differences in students’ attitudes to homosexuality, but only as far as male homosexuality is concerned.