Attitudes of teenage students of Cuenca towards sexual diversity

The overall objective of the survey was to assess the attitude of school age adoloscents regarding LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals) and the factors controlling the attitude. Knowledge of the extent and insight in the controlling factors will help in providing efficient and effective educational programs ensuring equality and respect regarding this minority group. The research was quantitative, transversal, descriptive and comparative. A survey was applied to 1130 high school students and 31 teachers to investigate the relationship between the attitudes regarding the LGBT minority group and the socio-demographic, family, community and personal factors of the sampled population. For the exploration of the relationship between the variables use was made of the chi-square statistics. Analysis of the survey data revealed that the majority of the adolescents had liberal homophobia attitudes. The factors controlling this attitude by school age adolescents regarding LGBT are: high school type, age, gender, level of religiosity, education level of parents, level of family communication, degree of prejudiced believes, to know a person who is LGBT, and sexual orientation. In summary, the adolescents from Cuenca have homophobic attitudes, which justifies the development of educational programs with the challenging objective of changing the attitudes towards LGBT.