Attitudes toward homosexuality and its association with empathy in nurse students

Objective To investigate the attitudes toward homosexuality and its association with empathy among nurse students. Methods Totally 410 nurse stuednts were assessed with self-administered Attitudes toward Homosexuality Questionnaire(ATHQ)and Interpersonal Reactivity Index-Chinese Version(IRI-C)for their attitudes toward homosexuality and empathy. Results Compared with the nurses in Taiwan,the students showed significantly higher scores in ATHQ (P<0.001).Compared with urban students,rural students showed significantly higher scores in ATHQ and IRI-C (P<0.05,P<0.001)and the rural students also showed significantly higher scores in condemnation/tolerance,empathy concern and personal distress(P<0.05,P<0.001).There was a significant correlation between fantasy and the attitude toward homosexuality. Conclusion The nurse students had negative attitude toward homosexuality and the attitude was related to the fantasy score of IRI-C.Also there was a significant difference in attitude toward homosexuality and empathy between urban and rural students.