THE PERCEIVED SOCIAL-CONTEXT OF AIDS - STUDY OF INNER-CITY SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASE CLINIC PATIENTS

The present study investigated perceptions of AIDS as a social problem relative to 10 other problems in a sample of 194 inner-city sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic patients. Within-subjects analyses sh owed that AIDS was viewed as a more serious problem than housing, alco holism, and child care, while AIDS was less of a problem than employme nt, drug abuse, crime, discrimination, and teen pregnancy, and no diff erent from transportation and health care. Factor analysis was used to identify the interrelationships among social problems as perceived by STD patients. For men, factor analysis showed that AIDS was most clos ely related to crime, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and discrimination, with these problems constituting the first factor and accounting for m ost of the variance in the analysis. Men also placed AIDS with alcohol ism and child care on the third factor accounting for Little variance. For women, however, AIDS clustered most closely with alcoholism and c hild care, accounting for a minimal amount of variance in the analysis . Results further showed that perceptions of social problems among wom en correlated with HIV-risk-related behaviors. The structural context of social problems, within which AIDS is embedded, is discussed with r eference to HIV-AIDS-prevention interventions.