Perceptions of Mothers’ Competence and Morality: the Role of Attribution of Responsibility, Gender Role Beliefs, and Sexual Prejudice

Introduction: Attitudes toward non-normative families, such as those composed of LGBTQ parents and stepparents, have improved over the last few decades. However, prejudice has not disappeared, but has only mutated into modern forms. This experimental study aimed to investigate the conditional mechanisms explaining negative attitudes toward non-normative mothers. We predicted that when evaluating conflicts within a family, a heterosexual biological mother would be viewed as being less responsible for her children’s misbehavior than non-normative mothers, and these attributions would, in turn, impact on perceptions of competence and morality as a manifestation of modern prejudice for those with highly heteronormative beliefs. Methods: Four hundred and two Italian heterosexual and cisgender participants from the general public took part in a questionnaire from November to December 2022. Each participant read one of four different vignettes describing a conflict between two children and their mother. Specifically, a target mother’s sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. lesbian mother) and her biological connectedness to children (biological mother vs. stepmother) were manipulated. Then, the participants responded to measures on mothers’ competence, morality, and responsibility for the children’s misbehavior, and scales on gender role beliefs and sexual prejudice. Results: Results of moderated mediation showed that the familial conflict provided a rationalization according to which people with high levels of gender role beliefs—or sexual prejudice—attributed more responsibility and less competence—or less morality—to non-normative mothers compared with heterosexual biological mothers. Conclusions: This study found that non-normative mothers are stigmatized on competence or moral bases eliciting attributions for conflict with their children. Policy Implications: These results contribute to the growing number of studies exploring attitudes toward non-normative family arrangements and are relevant for clinicians and policymakers.