Beliefs of pre-service early childhood teachers regarding same-sex-parented families in Greece

Teachers’ beliefs play a key role in the inclusion of same-sex-headed families in schools. This study assessed the beliefs of early childhood teachers in training in Greece about the effects of same-sex parenting on children’s development, and their comfort to work with same-sex parented families. 152 early childhood education students participated in the study. Data were collected using two standardized instruments measuring children’s adjustment in same-sex families, and comfort when interacting with same-sex-headed families. Demographic information and information on participants’ religiosity and contact with LGBT+ individuals were also collected. Overall, participants held moderate positive beliefs about the adjustment of same-sex -parented children, while they expressed significantly fewer overt forms than subtle forms of opposition. They also expressed high levels of comfort interacting with same-sex-headed families. Partially supporting our hypotheses, religiosity predicted both overt and subtle forms of opposition to same-sex parenting, and comfort working with same-sex parented families. Contact with LGBT+ individuals predicted comfort working with same-sex parented families, and overt, but not subtle opposition. In contrast, year of study, and thus exposure to university training, did not predict any of the dependent variables. The implications of these results for creating an inclusive environment in early education settings are discussed.