School of Psychology, Deakin University (Geelong Campus), Pigdons Rd, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3217

Ph. (03) 5227 2924; Fax. (03) 5227 2021; email: dhiggins@deakin.edu.au

Daniel Witthaus

Youth Services, Moonee Valley City Council, Moonee Ponds,

(03) 9243 8793, Mobile 0418 123 806, email: dwitthaus@mvcc.vic.gov.au

Implementation of the program was funded by the School Focused Youth Service initiative of the Victorian Department of Human Services. Evaluation of the program has been funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) Grant number 2000-0236. We are grateful to Thomas Burns for his assistance with data entry and analysis.

ABSTRACT

Issue addressed: As one of the most significant sites of homophobia is the school, a 6-week school-based program designed to help students explore their attitudes to gays and lesbians was developed, called ‘Pride & Prejudice’.

Methods: In order to evaluate the usefulness of the program, a class of Year 10 students at a state secondary school participated in the Pride and Prejudice program. Students’ attitudes to gay men and lesbians, social connectedness, self-esteem, attitudes to race, and beliefs about gender roles were measured before and after their participation.

Results: Attitudes held by students towards gay men and lesbians were significantly more positive after the program. The level of attendance during the program significantly predicted the change in attitudes towards gay men but not lesbians.

Conclusions: School-based programs delivered to individual classes in which students are given the opportunity to explore their attitudes towards lesbians and gay men may be a useful part of a strategy to reduce homophobia.

So what? Health-promoting schools now have available to them a tool for promoting opportunities for students to reflect on their attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. It is hoped that school-wide implementation of such a program will eventually lead to a reduction in the discrimination same-sex attracted youth often experience.

Key words: homophobia, same-sex attraction, gay, lesbian, program evaluation, attitudes

Session 1: "Difference and our reactions" This session involves discussing the concepts of difference and normality, exploring social groups considered ‘different’ and to what extent the students think these groups are acceptable. Students are encouraged to develop a framework of prejudice and discrimination, with a particular emphasis on stereotypes and young people.

Session 2: "Gender – being a man, being a woman" Students’ understanding of sex, gender, masculinity and femininity is explored. The participants are then asked about their attitudes toward interactions between people of the same sex.

Session 3: "Not Everyone’s Straight!" Students discuss homophobia and the different forms it can take. Words and characteristics that the class could generate about gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and heterosexuals are brainstormed, and questions they would like to ask lesbians and gay men.

Session 4: "All your questions answered!" Students are shown a video of openly gay and lesbian people answering their questions. Students’ reactions to the video are explored. The presenter also appears on video answering the young people’s questions – thus ‘coming out’ to the class.

Session 5: "What’s it got to do with me?" Students discuss the presenter’s sexuality and its relevance to the program. Famous people who were gay, lesbian or bisexual—and the impact of their work—are discussed, along with Australian statistics.

Session 6: "Bringing it all together" Students are asked to recall and discuss what has been covered together during the program. They are asked to consider things that they can do to further understand the experiences of same-sex attracted students, and how these students could be supported in their school.

Traditionally, Australian school-based initiatives around sexuality and homophobia tended to be focused on either anti-violence or disease prevention , and are not always able to be delivered by an openly gay and/or lesbian facilitator (i.e., fears over job security may make it difficult for teachers to be ‘out’). Although the impact of a same-sex-attracted facilitator in these programs has not been evaluated, the impact of an openly gay instructor on the experience of first-year psychology students in the US was positive .

It was hypothesised that participation in the program would lead to students having (a) more positive attitudes to gay men and lesbians, (b) a greater sense of social connectedness, (c) improved self-esteem, and (d) a greater willingness to acknowledge less traditional gender-roles. It was also hypothesised that students’ gender, their scores on self-esteem and social desirability, and their level of attendance during the program would predict the degree of change in attitudes to lesbians and gay men.

Twenty-three year 10 students at a Victorian regional co-educational state school participated in the ‘Pride & Prejudice’ program as part of their Health Studies unit. In order to reduce the likelihood that students would feel the need to respond positively to please the facilitator, staff from Deakin University asked the students to complete the survey. Students completed the surveys anonymously, and identified their response with a self-generated code or ‘nick name’ to enable matching of pre- and post-test responses (one week after completion of the program). Fifteen students (8 males, 7 females) who completed the survey at both times were included in analyses. (As not all students were in attendance each week due to other school commitments, the number of sessions they attended—out of six—was also recorded.)

The Homosexuality Attitudes Scale (HAS) is a 20-item scale assessing attitudes towards lesbians and gays (high scores indicate homophobia). The Australian Sex-Role Questionnaire is a 50-item measure of beliefs about gender roles, yielding five scales: positive femininity, negative femininity, positive masculinity, negative masculinity, and a social desirability subscale. The Social Interaction Questionnaire - Revised is a 20-item likert scale measure of perceived school environment or social connectedness. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a 10-item likert scale measure of an individual’s self-esteem. The Modern Racism Scale (a 6-item likert scale adapted for Australian use ) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale were included to control for the possibility that positive changes in students’ attitudes from Time 1 to Time 2 were the result of social desirability or ‘political correctness’.

Attitudes to gay men. Attitudes held by all students towards gay men were significantly more positive after the program (M = 17.00; SD = 7.21) than at the pre-test (M = 19.73; SD = 6.82), t = 2.50 (14), p < .05. Using a multiple regression analysis, the level of students’ attendance during the program was the only significant predictor of positive change in attitudes towards gay men (Adjusted R² = .56, p < .05). The more sessions the students attended, the greater the shift in their attitudes. (Self-esteem, gender of the student, and the tendency to respond in a socially desirable way were not significant predictors of change in attitudes towards gay men, p > .05).

Attitudes to lesbians. Attitudes held by all students towards lesbians were significantly more positive after the program (M = 15.53; SD = 4.36) than at the pre-test (M = 17.33; SD = 3.77) t = 3.36 (14), p < .01. In contrast to predictors of change in attitudes towards gay men, neither the number of sessions attended, nor any of the other variables were significant predictors of change in attitudes towards lesbians (Adjusted R² = .04, p > .05).

Gender. The change in attitudes seems to be stronger for males: seven of the eight male students had more positive attitudes to gay men and lesbians at the conclusion of the program than they did at the beginning compared to only 4 of the 7 female students. However, this was most likely due to the more positive attitudes held by females (M = 18.86; SD = 4.30) than males (M = 27.25; SD = 6.76) at the commencement of the study.

Other variables. Participation in the program did not lead to changes in self-esteem, social connectedness (sense of belonging), self-esteem, beliefs about gender roles and attitudes to race when comparing students’ ratings of prior to the program and after its implementation (p > .05).

Process evaluation. Students evaluated positively each of the various aspects of the process of implementing the ‘Pride & Prejudice’ program. On a 5-point scale (where 1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), the mean score was above 4.0 on 10 of 15 items, and the lowest mean was 3.3 for the item "the stuff we did was too easy", indicating a mid-range score for difficulty. Students identified that they wanted teachers to be able to explore same-sex attraction in their classrooms and to include lesbian and gay content in mainstream curricula.

In this pilot study, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ resulted in a reduction in homophobic attitudes held by students towards both lesbians and gays, particularly for males (females already held more positive initial attitudes). The reported changes in attitude towards gays and lesbians were not due to the effects of social desirability as this was not a significant predictor of the change in attitude.

Self-esteem, willingness to acknowledge the holding of non-traditional gender roles, racism, and social connectedness did not significantly change. However, given the small number of participants, this is not surprising. Further evaluation with a greater number of participants will be required to determine the impact on these variables.

Students found the program to be not only interesting, enjoyable helpful and challenging. The structure and content of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ engages students to consider and re-evaluate their views on issues of sexual difference and discrimination. However, it is important to note that the program extends broader than the classroom. Prior to conducting the program, teachers are invited to form a working party to address issues of sexuality and homophobia within the school as a whole, thereby fostering collaboration between schools and a community youth worker (as recommended by the SFYS strategy ) and the provision of professional development activities for teachers . This means that the aims, methods and content of the program are consistent with the Health Promoting Schools model in that there is an inter-relationship between the three areas of the school community: curriculum and teaching, school environment and philosophy, and community links and partnerships .

The findings are limited, in that the evaluation sample is very small, and may not be representative of all middle-high school students. To address this issue, a further trial of the program is currently being undertaken in a private secondary school affiliated with a Christian denomination. The results will then be used to develop and formalise the program for wider use scale within secondary school settings. A training package is being developed, and staff from two rural secondary schools trained to implement the program within their school. A video showing a number of young gays and lesbians discussing the issues raised in each of the sessions has been produced to assist in delivery of the program. Evaluation of these two trials will ascertain the impact of the program being conducted by teachers who are known to students, and who do not necessarily identify themselves to students as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

The preliminary results from this small sample suggest that ‘Pride & Prejudice’ may be a useful program. After further evaluation, the program materials will be made available for secondary schools to be used as part of an overall program to reduce the prejudice and discrimination experienced by same-sex attracted young people.