Mental Health Trainees' Explicit and Implicit Attitudes Toward Transracial Adoptive Families Headed by Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Couples.

We investigated 109 (79.8% female; 76% White, and 83.5% Heterosexual) mental health trainees' explicit and implicit attitudes toward heterosexual, lesbian, and gay White couples adopting and raising Black children. To determine explicit attitudes, we used a vignette depicting a Black child ready for adoption and three types of equally qualified White families who were headed by a heterosexual couple, gay couple, or lesbian couple. The trainees were asked to indicate which type of family they preferred to adopt the child. To determine implicit attitudes, we used the computer programed latency-based multifactor implicit association test (IAT) protocol. The IAT data were collected from each participant individually. Explicit data showed that over 80% of the participants indicated no strong preference in terms of which type of family should adopted the child. However, IAT data showed that the trainees implicitly preferred lesbian couples. Overall, the degree of congruence between explicit and implicit was very low. Implications for training were discussed.