Postawy przyszłych psychologów wobec rodzin nieheteroseksualnych z dziećmi
Psychology Students Attitudes towards Working with the Nonheterosexual Families with Children

Summary/Abstract: The survey involved 97 psychology students at the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland). The author used a questionnaire in which students imagined professional situations requiring contact with nonheterosexual families, they declared their attitudes, and then commented on it. Qualitative analysis of 182 comments enabled to identify four categories of reasons: 1) psychological (mainly based on the systems theory and the social attachment theory), 2) based on law, 3) biologistic and 4) based on religion or worldview. Psychological explanations accompanied mostly the open, accepting attitude, while remaining reasons were used to justify the distance towards women or the resignment of the intervention. The article discusses the results of the study with reference to the requirements of psychologists’ professional ethics. Tittle knowledge of students about these families, due to the absence of the subject in the curriculum of psychological higher education is an important issue of the research. The final suggestion concerns the possibility of preparing psychologists to work with such families by supplementing the main program of psychological studies with two subject areas. First of all, the introduction of the latest results of researches on LGB parenting into psychological curriculum is essential. Secondly, the university should provide the opportunity for discussion and reflection on ethical dilemmas, so that students could achieve greater insight into their own beliefs, comprehend their implications for psychological work and cope with internal conflicts.

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