ASSESSING THE CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY OF THE AIDS ATTITUDE SCALE

To assess the construct validity of the AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS) (Shr um, Turner, & Bruce, 1989), we administered it and related attitude sc ales to introductory psychology students (n = 279) and gay/lesbian sup port group members (n = 38). A subset of the students (n = 105) partic ipated in a concurrent validity study; students donating items to an A IDS food pantry scored more tolerantly on the AAS than other students. AAS scores also differentiated subjects expected to have more toleran t attitudes toward people living with HIV and AIDS from other responde nts, indicating known groups validity. As expected, AAS scores were po sitively correlated with attitudes about homosexuals and negatively co rrelated with authoritarian beliefs. However, AAS scores were not rela ted to death anxiety. Attitudes about AIDS were distinguishable from r elated constructs using factor analysis. Together, these data provide evidence for the construct validity of the AAS. The need for valid ass essment tools and uses of the AAS are discussed.