ATTITUDES TOWARD SAME-SEX ORIENTED PEOPLE IN THE POLICE AND HEALTH CARE SECTORS

Attitudes toward different minority groups are sometimes formed on the basis of too few simplified, biased, and unjustified generalisations. In the last few years attitudes toward same-sex oriented people have became more positive, but they are still mainly negative (Buck and others, 2013.). The main goal of this research was to look into the attitudes toward same-sex oriented people among students and employees in the police and health care sectors. The research included 990 participants (501 high school students and 489 employees) and used a questionnaire on attitudes toward homosexuals from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (according to Parmac, 2005). The results of both the analysis of variance and the hierarchical regression analysis show that the average attitudes of participants are neutral, but there are differences between attitudes towards same-sex oriented men and women. In the case of same-sex oriented women, the attitudes of health care sector participants are significantly more positive than those of the participants from the police sector, although the difference is very small. In the case of same-sex oriented men, the attitudes of female participants are significantly more positive than the attitudes of male participants, and the attitudes of employees are also more positive than those of high school pupils. In addition, negative attitudes can be relatively easily predicted based on the participants' belief in the possibility of consciously controlling one's own sexual orientation, lack of previous contact with same-sex oriented people and religious beliefs that match those of the church doctrine. The results contribute to a better understanding of attitudes toward same-sex oriented people in the specific context of health and police professions in Croatia. They point to a need for additional work on understanding, acceptance of diversity and an increase in tolerance, especially among high school students of those professions.