Attitudes towards Lesbians and Gay Men among Turkish Mental Health Providers

Studies on attitudes towards homosexuality in Turkey have revealed that university students and people within various occupations generally have negative attitudes. Studies exploring attitudes of mental health workers are very scarce. Accordingly, this study explored attitudes of Turkish psychologists and psychological counselors' toward lesbians and gay men and identified demographic and occupational factors that are related to those attitudes. With this aim, participants completed questions on demographic and occupational variables, and questionnaires assessing attitudes toward homosexuality, as well as social desirability. Results showed that participants had positive attitudes toward lesbians and gay men in general. Furthermore, their attitudes did not differ based on gender, marital status, and education level. Age and religiosity significantly predicted more negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men. Results were discussed in the light of the previous research and recommendations for working with sexual minorities were provided. Future studies may benefit from using implicit measures to assess attitudes, and are suggested to recruit more representative samples in terms of demographic variables