AEGiS-06IAC: Homophobia, knowledge of persons with AIDS, and AIDS attitudes.

6th International AIDS Conference


San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

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Homophobia, knowledge of persons with AIDS, and AIDS attitudes.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:337 (abstract no. Th.D.845)
Michaels S, Gagnon J, Laumann E; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

OBJECTIVES AND

METHODS: Data from the General Social Survey of 1988, a national household survey (N=1480) of the population of the United States, was analyzed to examine the relationship between homophobia, personal acquaintance of persons with AIDS and attitudes towards AIDS policies.

FINDINGS: AND

CONCLUSION: About three quarters of the population of the U.S. agree with the statement that homosexuality is always immoral, an indicator of homophobia, a figure that has been stable for 13 years. In the 1988 survey 9 per cent of those interviewed said that they know of someone in their personal networks who had AIDS. Attitudes toward 8 AIDS policies (prohibiting students with AIDS from school attendance, government provision of safer sex knowledge, allowing insurers to test for AIDS virus, government payment for all AIDS care, premarital AIDS testing, safer sex teaching in schools, requiring AIDS infected to wear ID tags, public AIDS disability payments) were strongly affected by education, religiosity, homophobia, and knowledge of persons with AIDS. The AIDS policy items did not scale. Most importantly there is evidence from multivariate analysis that knowing persons with AIDS moderates the negative effects of homophobia, low education and high religiosity on AIDS attitudes. Additional data analysis of data from the NHIS AIDS supplement suggests similar impacts on AIDS knowledge as a consequence of knowing someone with AIDS.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Prejudice, Attitude, Homosexuality, Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Knowledge, Attitude to Health, Attitude of Health Personnel, Schools, Data Collection, Multivariate Analysis, United States, ICA6KWDaegis,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,prejudice,attitude,homosexuality,knowledge,attitudes,practice,knowledge,attitudetohealth,attitudeofhealthpersonnel,schools,datacollection,multivariateanalysis,unitedstates,ica6

900620
ThD845

Copyright © 1990 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.