著者

山本 章加 大蔵 雅夫 重本 津多子

出版者

徳島文理大学

雑誌

徳島文理大学研究紀要 (ISSN:02869829)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.84, pp.85-91, 2012-09

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In Japan, a lot of people used to be prejudiced against gay men, lesbians or bisexuals despite the fact that "homosexuality" as a category was eliminated from diagnostic criteria. Still, there is little investigation into the relations between individual's personality, his/her images and the attitudes toward homosexuals. A total of 164 heterosexual students of health and welfare (94 men and 70 women) with a mean age of 20.0 (SD=2.3) years participated in the questionnaire survey. They were asked to complete the Index of Attitudes toward Homosexuals (IAH), a 24-item questionnaire on the image of homosexuals using semantic differential method and a short form of Five Factor Personality Questionnaire as well as an inquiry about their history of encounters with homosexuals. Factor analysis of IAH resulted in three-factor solutions with factors identified as "avoidance of homosexual neighbors", "avoidance of contacts with homosexuals" and "avoidance of approach from homosexuals". Similarly, image questionnaire included two factors identified as "external image" and "internal image". Logistic regression analysis showed that "attachment" (OR=.93, 95%CI= .87-.99) was a predictor of positive "internal image", and that "encounters with homosexuals" (=yes, OR=.04, 95%CI: .01-.21) and personality traits such as "extroversion" (OR=1.15, 95%CI: 1.07-1.23), "emotionality" (OR=1.16, 95%CI: 1.09-1.25) and "playfulness" (OR=.87, 95%CI: .80-.95) were predictors of "avoidance of homosexual neighbors". Similarly, "avoidance of contacts withhomosexuals" was associated with "external image" (OR=2.00, 95%CI: 1.31-3.06) and "playfulness" (OR=.94, 95%CI: .88-.99), and "avoidance of approach from homosexuals" was associated with sex (=male, OR=9.54, 95%CI: 3.83-23.79) and "internal image" (OR=1.80, 95%CI: 1.04-3.14). These results indicate that personality traits weakly but significantly influence the development of image and attitude toward homosexuals among Japanese adolescents.