The expectations of future teachers regarding the adaptation of children from diverse adoptive family structures

In our society, school is an important context for human development. Teachers have an obligation to contribute to the integration of pupils whatever their personal or family situations, avoiding prejudices that may affect... [ view full abstract ]

In our society, school is an important context for human development. Teachers have an obligation to contribute to the integration of pupils whatever their personal or family situations, avoiding prejudices that may affect these pupils’ results and/or their adaptation. Some family models have become more visible recently, and this fact can influence the way that the future teachers think about them and about the children who are raised in them. For these reasons, the aim of this study has been to explore the expectations of undergraduates taking teaching degrees regarding the potential adaptation of children growing up in different kinds of adoptive families, including homoparental ones with gay fathers or lesbian mothers. The research has been funded by EDU2012‐38588 of the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness.
In this study, 208 undergraduates participated (70% women, 30% men), whose mean age was 19.90 years old (S.D. 2.04). In the sample, 42.3% were studying for a Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Teaching, and the rest (57.7%) a Bachelor Degree in Primary School Teaching. All of them answered a semi-structured questionnaire about the adaptation of children from different family models.
The results show that the undergraduates expect that the best adaptation would be in children from traditional nuclear families, followed by children from heterosexual adoptive families with two parents, more than from the rest families evaluated. To the contrary, the worst adaptation is expected in children who grow up with a gay adoptive father, or with two gay adoptive fathers or with two lesbian adoptive mothers with one of the members of the couple being the biological father/mother respectively. However, it should be noted that female undergraduates held greater expectations than the male ones about adaptation of children of homoparental couples when there is a blood link to one of them. The type of teaching degree studied has no significant effects on the results.
The results suggest the need to provide undergraduates taking teaching degrees more specific training in the dynamics, specificities and challenges of different family models, and specially, about the homoparental ones.