P. Kraft et J. Rise, PREDICTION OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS RESTRICTIVE AIDS POLICIES - A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING APPROACH, Social science & medicine, 40(5), 1995, pp. 711-718
Citations number
47
Categorie Soggetti
Social Sciences, Biomedical","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
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.