Changing homophobic attitudes through college sexuality education

Abstract

It was hypothesized that a unit on homosexuality (which emphasized role playing and the debunking of myths) in an undergraduate college sexuality course would alter students' homophobic attitudes. A modified version of the Hudson/Ricketts Index of Homophobia was used to measure homophobia. At the completion of the course, for those students in the treatment group with pretest scores above the median, the homophobic scores decreased significantly when compared to the scores of control counterparts. The results of this study also showed that there was no significant difference in homophobia scores at the end of the course for those students in the treatment group with pretest scores below the median when compared to the appropriate controls.