Investigation of the relationship between homophobia attitudes and gender perception among Nutrition and Dietetics, Nursing, First Aid and Emergency Care students

Homophobia remains an important social and public health concern that may contribute to stigma, discrimination, and inequalities in healthcare. Gender perceptions and socially constructed gender roles may influence individuals’ attitudes toward sexual and gender diversity, potentially shaping homophobic attitudes. Nutrition and Dietetics, Nursing, First Aid and Emergency Care students, as future healthcare professionals, have an important role in promoting inclusive, equitable, and non-discriminatory healthcare practices. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between attitudes toward homophobia and gender perception among health education students. This cross-sectional study was carried out with health education students at Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University between October 2021 and May 2022. This study was conducted with 447 health education students. The study was analyzed with R programming 4.1.3 and SPSS-25 program. A significant negative correlation was found between students’ homophobia scale total score mean and gender perception scale total score mean ( p < 0.05). The regression model developed to determine the effect of gender perception on homophobia level was found to be F = 88.50, p < 0.001, and 16% (R 2 =0.16) of the variance in the dependent variable was explained by the independent variable. Accordingly, gender perception has a negative and significant effect on the level of homophobia (β= -0.40; t =-9.408, p < 0.001). According to the SHAP values, the most important variable that should be in the model to predict the homophobia variable is the gender perception variable. As the students’ perception of gender increases, the level of homophobia decreases.