PREDICTION OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS RESTRICTIVE AIDS POLICIES - A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING APPROACH

The purpose of the study was to test a prehypothesized structural equa tion model of predictors of attitudes towards restrictive AIDS policie s. It was assumed that such attitudes are under influence of both cogn itive processes and more general attitudinal structures. The hypothesi zed model was tested against empirical data from a nation-wide survey of Norwegian adults, including 543 males and 577 females, The proposed model fit the data reasonably well. As expressed by total effect educ ation was the most important predictor of AIDS policy attitudes. Howev er, the most notable finding appeared to be the strong direct effect e xerted by attitudes towards minorities. Misinformation about AIDS tran smission and sexual attitudes also exerted significant direct effects upon AIDS policy attitudes. The results clearly demonstrate that AIDS policy attitudes are not cognitively based alone but also reflect more general attitudinal structures. Thus choosing a strategy which is pri marily based on increasing the flow of factual AIDS information in ord er to remedy casual contact beliefs, will not be sufficient to prevent stigmatized and negative AIDS attitudes. This is more evident in that beliefs about modes of AIDS transmission, as reported in this study, seem themselves to have a symbolic component. A perspective which incl udes the idea of the value expressive fuctions of AIDS related attitud es seem relevant. Consequently, educational strategies which directly address prejudiced attitudes towards minority groups may prove particu larly appropriate in the prevention of stigmatized and restrictive AID S attitudes.