Predictors of Attitudes towards Abortion in Lebanese Females
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2022
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Abstract
Despite the fact that abortion has been pronounced as a reproductive right for women, it still is illegal in Lebanon and in many other Arab countries. This study investigated three possible predictors of attitudes towards abortion in a group of Lebanese females: the religious orientation of the participant, the political idealization of the participant, and the feminist attitude of the participant. In addition, the study proposed an explanation of the relationship between these variables based on the System Justification Theory. This quantitative study followed a correlational design and the survey was administered through a questionnaire to a purposive convenience sample. The study used four instruments: Krauss & Hood’s (2013) Circumplex Religious Orientation Inventory (CROI); Duckitt et al.’s (2010) Conservatism and Traditionalism scales from the Authoritarianism – Conservatism – Traditionalism (ACT) model; Morgan’s (1996) Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale; and Taylor & Whitehead’s Abortion Attitude Scale. The study predicted that 1) a high level of a committed/ unreflective religious orientation, that a high level of conservatism and that a low level of feminism will predict criminalizing attitudes towards abortion; 2) Feminist attitudes will predict attitudes towards abortion more strongly than both religious orientation and conservative political idealization in Lebanese females; 3) Lower levels of education in the participants will negatively predict attitudes towards abortion in Lebanese females; 4) Having an unemployed mother will negatively predict attitudes towards abortion in Lebanese females. The study tested these hypotheses using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 25) and the statistical tests ran were a standard multiple regression and two independent-samples T-Tests. The statistical analyses showed support for the first hypothesis only. The other three hypotheses were rejected. Hence, the study showed that attitudes towards abortion are affected by many predictors including religious orientations, political idealizations, and feminist attitudes. Future studies can try to replicate this study and target its limitation by choosing a larger sample size, a random sample that is more representative of Lebanese women, and a counterbalanced survey that controls for order and carryover effects.
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Mneimneh, L. (2022). Predictors of Attitudes towards Abortion in Lebanese Females (SBS thesis, Haigazian University)