The Relationship Between People's Demographics and Their Attitudes Toward Abortion and Adoption

Prior to 1973, there were about 200,000 to 1,200,000 abortions a year. In 1973, supporters of the national movement against abortion contended that abortion led to negative psychological effects. After the Roe v. Wade decision, more abortions were performed in clinics compared to hospitals, women were more likely to have an abortion in the city they resided in, and more pregnancies were terminated in the first trimester rather then the second trimester. In the past decade, 1.5 to 1.6 million abortions have been performed yearly (Adler et al., 1992). Investigating the issue of abortion was important to see how demographic factors affected an individual's attitude toward abortion.

Psychologists define attitudes as a way of interpreting people, ideas or objects. The three major constituents that form an individual's attitudes toward a social issue, such as abortion, include affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects. Affective experiences are composed of emotional responses. An individual's religious and moral beliefs form affective experiences. For example, feelings toward abortion are based more on values than a thorough investigation of facts, and are not based on logic. Usually, persuasive arguments will not change an individual's view toward abortion. Cognitive experiences are composed of an individual's beliefs and thoughts. The positive and negative aspects of an issue help to form cognitive experiences. Behavioral experiences are composed of an individual's actions about a social issue. In addition, attitudes come from our genes. Furthermore, attitudes can be divided into explicit and implicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes are attitudes that an individual is consciously aware of and can easily discuss their interpretation of an issue, such as opinions on abortion. Implicit attitudes are attitudes that are unconscious and are involuntary (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2005).

While a combination of religious, moral and ethical views lead to different views on abortion, this article emphasized the psychological aspects of abortion. Based on national surveys administered by the Alan Guttmache Institute (AGI), younger and unmarried women were more likely to obtain an abortion. There was also a correlation between race and socioeconomic and martial status. Approximately 60% of abortion patients were 25 years old or younger and the highest abortion rate was among 18-19 year olds.Furthermore, based on the survey, 69% of abortion patients were White and 31% were non-White. However, abortions within each population show that rates were highest for non-Whites and Hispanics (Adler et al., 1992).

In addition, some women wait to have an abortion because of financial hardships and the health care system. Women who wait until the second trimester to have an abortion are usually unmarried, young, Black, Protestant, and in an unstable relationship. Also, they are more likely to be from a lower socioeconomic level and have a lower educational background. The major psychological and sociological reasons that effect how a woman reacts to having an abortion are support from family and partner, culture, and religion (Adler et al., 1992).

Aalfs et al. (2004) wanted to determine patient factors that affect timing of genetic counseling. In this study, pregnant and non-pregnant women that visited a genetic counselor filled out a questionnaire. The questionnaire asked patients background information, cognitive reasons, and reasons for the timing and visiting a genetic counselor. Background information included age, religion, educational level, marital status, ethnicity, health and number of children, and genetic risk factors. Cognitive factors consisted of attitudes toward abortion and knowledge of their genetic risk factors.

The results showed that pregnant women were more likely to be married, highly educated and perceived their children as healthy. There was a statistically significant difference between pregnant and non-pregnant women in risk factors. Pregnant women had knowledge of two or more family genetic risk factors and non-pregnant women themselves had a genetic disease. Non-pregnant women were more likely to decide on their own to visit a genetic counselor, while pregnant women went based on a doctor's referral. However, there were no statistically significant differences in knowledge of risk factors and attitudes toward abortion. If the child would be mentally retarded, pregnant and non-pregnant women supported abortion.

Douthat (2004) discussed the correlation between religion and political affiliation. In the past decade, attendance at church and being extremely religious has reliably predicted how an individual will vote. For example, in the 2000 election, people who frequently attended church services voted for Bush. The majority of people who never went to church voted for Gore. According to the Pew Research Center, supporting the Republican Party was positively correlated with being highly religious, which was especially true for white voters. Catholics usually voted for Democrats, while members of the Episcopal and Mormon Church voted Republican. In fact, 88% of the members of the Mormon Church voted for Bush. However, issues such as abortion have divided traditional religious alliances. The Republicans are usually composed of religious traditionalists who are Pro-Life. Democrats are often composed of liberals, non-religious and secularist individuals who are Pro-Choice.

Furthermore, even though Democrats and Republicans remain divided over policies concerning abortion, Bush has been unclear where he residues on the issue of abortion. Bush has stated abortion should only be legal under certain circumstances, such as rape, incest or the pregnancy is detrimental to the woman's health, but the Republicans want to make all abortions illegal. In contrast, Gore argued that women have the right to choose abortion, but he is against partial birth and late-term abortions (Brians & Greene, 2004).

In order to analyze the importance of abortion in the 2000 election, data was obtained from the 1996 and 2000 National Election Studies (NES). The respondent's position on abortion, how they perceived the presidential candidates' views on abortion, their adherence to a particular party, and how they actually voted was analyzed. Each respondent was placed in one of four groups: Pro-Choice Democrat, Pro-Life Democrat,
Pro-Choice Republican or Pro-Life Republican. Each question on abortion was rated on a 1 to 4 scale, with 1 being abortion should never be allowed, 2 stated that abortion should be allowed under certain circumstances(rape, incest and detrimental to woman's health), 3 stated that only if abortion is absolutely necessary and 4 being a women has the right to choose. The respondent's answers were based on their own views and the views of each candidate towards abortion. People who chose 1 or 2 were classified as Pro-Life, and people who chose 4 were classified as Pro-Choice. The results showed that the respondent's answers were positively correlated to their party's main position on abortion. However, their answers were not more "in line" with the candidate they supported, but further away from the candidate they opposed (Brians & Greene, 2004).

Petersen (2001) examined the interaction between education and religion in predicting abortion views because previous studies only focused on the relationship between religion and whether an individual was Pro-Choice or Pro-Life. The researcher tested Berger's plausibility theory, which consists of three hypotheses. Hypothesis one stated that, for people who regularly go to church, education is negatively correlated to being against abortion. The relationship was strongest for religious liberals, and weakest for religious conservatives and Catholics. Hypothesis two stated that education, with the exception of Jews and Protestants, had a stronger impact on those who do not attend church regularly. If individuals were highly educated, the difference in views toward abortion greatly increased between religions. However, there were no differences in abortion views for people who had received lower levels of education. Hypothesis three stated that the effect of education was the same for all religious dominations among people who do not attend church often. The results strongly supported hypothesis one and two, but moderately supported hypothesis three.

Bell and Stoneman (2000) conducted a study to investigate how attitudes toward people with disabilities affected an individual's views toward abortion. In order to assess this relationship, individuals were asked if they (or their partner) would consider abortion if prenatal testing showed that their baby had hemophilia, Down syndrome or spina bifida. Religious affiliation, education, church attendance, gender, and whether an individual supported a traditional family have been found to predict attitudes toward abortion. Roman Catholics and Baptists, especially those who attend church regularly, usually are against abortion. Individuals who are Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian or Jewish often believe that abortion should be legal.

The results indicated that negative attitudes towards people with disabilities were moderately correlated with choosing abortion. There were no statistically significant differences in choosing abortion for age or gender. For the diagnosis of hemophilia, Methodists, Presbyterians and Jews were significantly more likely to choose abortion than Roman Catholics and Baptists. However, there was no difference for the diagnosis of Down syndrome or spina bifida. Also, those who did not attend church regularly were more likely to choose abortion for all three diagnoses.

Bradley and Hawkins-Leon (2002) examined cross-racial adoption by focusing on Whites adopting Black children. The purpose of this study was to investigate research on cross-racial adoption, describe legalities of cross-racial adoption and discuss counseling and legal ramifications. Since there are less Black families adopting children and fewer White children up for adoption, many Black children have been adopted by White families. When Blacks are adopted by White families, the major concern is whether Black children develop a healthy cultural and racial identity. In order to ensure that Black children are healthy psychologically and culturally, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) contended that Black children should be adopted by Black families. Also, many White families live in neighborhoods where the majority of people are White. This could negatively affect the child's self-esteem. However, a number of studies have concluded that Black children adopted by White families have adjusted well, but many of these studies had methodological, interpretive, analytical problems.

Duyme (1988) assessed the strength of the relationship between social class and school failure for adopted children. Failure was measured by number of grades the child had repeated. In order to examine this relationship, 87 adolescents, who were adopted by the age of three, placed into various social class families were studied. The researcher wanted to see if there was a correlation between social class of adoptive parent and the success of their adopted child in school. The researcher hypothesized those children adopted into higher social class families would have a higher success rate. The results demonstrated that as the social class of the adoptive parents increased, the less grades the adopted child repeated. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the father's social class and number of grades a child repeated. However, the relationship between the adopted child and their biological parents was not statistically significant.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between religion, political affiliation, and gender and attitudes toward abortion and adoption. Each participant received a 13 item self-report questionnaire on attitudes toward abortion and adoption. Based on previous research, we expected that the majority of people who considered themselves Republicans would be conservative and Pro-Life, while the majority of people who considered themselves Democrats would be Pro-Choice. Catholics, non-religious individuals, and liberals would be Democrats and Pro-Choice. Individuals who were Jewish would be Pro-Choice, while the majority of Baptists would be Pro-Life.

Method

Participants

There were a total of 57 participants, with 21 males, 32 females and 5 people did not indicate their gender. Arcadia University students were randomly selected to participate in this study. The ages of the students ranged from 17 to 22 years of age. The majority of students were psychology or biology majors. All of the participants were treated in accordance with the ethical standards of the APA.

Materials

The data were collected through a 13 item self-report questionnaire. Participants were asked to indicate their age, major, gender, political affiliation and religious affiliation. The majority of the survey questions were on a 1 to 5 scale. Participants were asked to indicate how religious they were, how sufficient their health care was, and what they consider themselves politically. Furthermore, they needed to indicate, by circling, whether they considered themselves Pro-Choice or Pro-Life. They also had to indicate, by circling, under what circumstances, if any, abortion should be permitted. In addition, there were several questions on adoption, which were on a 1 to 5 scale. They were asked if they would ever consider adopting a child or consider adoption if a person's significant other were pregnant. Participants were also asked how comfortable they would feel with same-sex, cross-racial, male and female, single male and single female adoption.

Procedure

Each participant received a 13 item self-report questionnaire on attitudes toward abortion and adoption. The survey took about 10 minutes for each participant to answer. On the survey, it stated that participants were not to write their name. Also, the survey stated that participants were not obligated to fill out the survey and may stop answering at any time. When the participants finished the survey, they placed their survey in a business envelope, sealed it closed, and deposited it in a large yellow envelope. The data collected was used to examine the relationship between religion, political affiliation, andgender and attitudes toward abortion and adoption.

Results

In this study, the raw data collected was statistically analyzed. A T-test was performed on the sex of the participant and several statistical significances were found. Statistical significance was found in the age of the participant, t(51)= .066, p. In addition, a Post Hoc test was performed with MANOVA. The LSD Post Hoc test that was performed had several statistically significant findings. Post Hoc tests were performed on political affiliation on questions 1-11. Question 1(how religious are you) was statistically significant Democrat to Republican, p= .020. Also, there was a statistically significant difference for Republican to Other, p=.035. Republicans were more religious than Democrats and Other. For question 2 (political stance), there was a statistically significant difference for Democrat to Republican, p=.000. Also, there was a statistically significant difference found for Democrat to Independent, p=.055. Republicans were more conservative than Democrats and Independents. For question 6 (male/female adoption), there was a statistically significant difference for Republican to Other, p= .077. Republicans were more in favor of a male and a female adoption than Other. For question 9 (single male adoption), there was a statistically significant difference for Democrat to Other, p=.029. For question 10 (single female adoption), there was a statistically significant difference for Democrat to Other, p=.016. Democrats were more in favor of single male and female adoption compared to Other.

In addition, there was a statistically significant difference for Other to Republican, p=.041 and for Other to Independent, p=.037. Republicans were more in favor of single male and female adoption compared to Other, while Independents were more in favor of single male and female adoption compared to Other.

Furthermore, a MANOVA statistical analysis was performed on religious affiliation and there were several statistically significant findings. Question 2 (political stance) was found to be statistically significant, F(4,51)= 3.741, p= .004. A marginal statistical significance was found for question 5 (significant other adoption), F(4,51)= 2.977, p=.069. Question 11 (cross-racial adoption) was found to be statistically significant, F(4, 51)= 2.877, p= .018. A Post Hoc test was tried but could not be performed because at least one religious affiliation had fewer than two cases.

A Pearson Chi-Square test was performed on questions 12-20. There was a marginal statistically significant difference found between political affiliation and incest, which was: X (4)= 7.330a, p= .062. There was also a statistically significant difference found between religious affiliation and one night stand, which was: X (4)= 10.889a, p =.028. There was a statistically significant difference found between religious affiliation and over 40 years of age, which was: X (4)= 9.167a, p= .057.

Discussion

From our statistical findings, we found that our hypothesis was supported. However, the relationship between religious affiliation and views toward abortion and adoption was not supported because the majority of people were Catholic. Gender affected the likelihood of choosing adoption for self and feeling comfortable with two males adopting a child. Females were more likely to choose adoption and felt more comfortable with two males adopting a child than males. Male participants were older than female participants. Also, there was a relationship between political affiliation and political stance. Republicans were more conservative than Democrats and Other. The more religious an individual was the more likely they were a Republican. Republicans were more religious than Democrats and Other. Republicans were most comfortable with male and female adoption. Democrats favored single male and single female adoption the most. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference between comfort levels for cross-racial adoption and views toward abortion. Those who were Pro-Choice were more comfortable with cross-racial adoption. There was also statistical significance found between religious affiliation and choosing one night stand or over 40 years of age as a good reason for choosing abortion. They were more likely to be Pro-Choice.

The actual results matched the expected results. The results matched the results of Douthat (2004), Greene and Brains (2004), Petersen (2201), and Bell and Stoneman(2000). Douthat (2004) found that religious intensity was positively correlated with being a Republican and Pro-Life. Non-religious individuals were more likely to be a Democrat, and Catholics were more likely to be a Democrat. Democrats consisted of liberals and non-religious individuals who were Pro-Choice. Greene and Brains (2004) discovered that an individual's view on abortion was not more "in line" with the candidate they supported, but further away from the candidate they opposed. Petersen (2001) found that education was negatively correlated to being against abortion for religious individuals. Differences in views toward abortion greatly increased between religions for highly educated individuals. Bell and Stoneman (2000) discovered that the more religious Catholics and Baptists were against abortion, while Jewish individuals usually supported abortion. However, in our study, this relationship was not supported because different religions were not represented equally.

Thus, the present study further demonstrates the relationship between religious intensity, political affiliation and gender and views toward abortion and adoption. Since the majority of people who filled out the questionnaire were Catholic and were all college students between the ages of 17-22, the results might have been different if the participants were older, non-college students and all religions were represented more equally. The practical applications of this study were to allow a better understanding how religion, gender and political affiliation affect views toward abortion and adoption. For future research, people of different ages and religions should be surveyed.

References

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