Students Beliefs about Same Sex Couples and Family Therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze student therapist’s level of agreement with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s (AAMFT) formal statements concerning lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons and families; specifically, it examined student’s level of agreement with the AAMFT’s definition of Marriage/Couple and Family Therapy (CFT), and the AAMFT’s formal statement concerning same sex couples. This was explored via the participant’s qualitative and quantitative answers. The study used an existing data set consisting of 248 participants; 62.6% were enrolled in a masters program and 36.8% were enrolled in a PhD CFT program. Participant’s quantitative responses indicated that a large majority of participants agreed with the statements, and were in support of the AAMFT inviting same sex couples to receive therapeutic services. However, the qualitative responses also indicated that some participants disagreed with the statements, and did not hold accepting beliefs towards LGB persons and families.