International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences

Sexual identity may be used to describe a person's perception of his or her own sex, rather than sexual orientation. The term sexual preference has a similar meaning to sexual orientation, and the two terms are often used interchangeably, but sexual preference suggests a degree of voluntary choice. This study aimed to determine the extent of parents’ influence on a child's gender preference or orientation. All 373 BSBA Financial Management (FM) students enrolled in school year 2017–2018 were the respondents of the study. A self-made structured questionnaire was used in gathering the data. The first part gathered the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age, sex, year level, religion, ethnic affiliation, parents’ highest educational attainment, and parents’ occupation. The second part determined the respondents’ assessment on family orientation and parents’ influence on their child's gender preference. This study used the descriptive research design. Simple statistical tools such as frequency (F), percentage (%), mean and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the study. Results of the survey show that all 48 families with an LGBT in the family encountered problems with their parents regarding their gender. The fourth year respondents are more vocal in expressing their problems as compared to the lower years. Findings reveal that both father and mother have equal influence on their children regarding gender but 46 respondents stated that their fathers exert more influence on their children while 37 expressed that their mothers have a stronger influence rather than their fathers. The salient features of this study should be considered by the school administration in order to come up with strategies in guidance and counselling for problems regarding the LGBT community in the school.