The "Persuadable Middle" on Same-Sex Marriage: Formative Research to Build Support among Heterosexual College Students

Same-sex marriage is a controversial policy issue that affects the welfare of gay and lesbian couples throughout the USA. Considerable research examines opinions about same-sex marriage; however, studies have not investigated the covariates of the “persuadable middle”— those individuals who are neutral or unsure about their views. This group of people is often the target of same-sex marriage campaigns, yet they have received no empirical attention.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89607/1/Woodford et al 2011 Persuadable Middle.pd

God Attachment, Mother Attachment, and Father Attachment in Early and Middle Adolescence

10.1007/s10943-010-9342-yJournal of Religion and Health1-15JRHE

Explaining Variation in Relations Among Intrinsic Religiosity, Political Conservatism, and Homonegativity as a Function of Authoritarianism’s Three Components: an Expansion on Recent Literature

Past research suggested that the strong relationship between having high levels of religiosity and/or political conservatism and harboring a high level of negativity toward homosexuals often is accounted for by the strength of individuals\u27 authoritarian views. In an effort to build upon this extant research, the goal of this study was to examine the way in which components of authoritarianism mediate the relationship between religiosity and political conservatism and homonegativity. To achieve this goal, a recently developed modality of path analysis that allows for the effect of one independent variable on another to be controlled was used. Because preliminary analyses indicated that attitudes toward same-sex marriage and homonegativity demonstrated multicollinearity, a composite measure was created. Results suggested that the overall strength of the relationship between religiosity and political conservatism with homonegativity remains statistically significant, even after accounting for three components of authoritarianism and the potential effect of social desirability. These authoritarianism components also had a significant indirect effect on the strength of the relationship between religiosity and homonegativity, with authoritarian submission and conventionalism fully mediating this relationship. Implications of these findings were discussed. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York