Premium
Attitudes Toward People Living With HIV/AIDS: A Model of Attitudes to Illness 1
Author(s) -
Connors John,
Hely Alan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-9029.2007.00151.x
Subject(s) - casual , psychology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , homosexuality , disease , social psychology , clinical psychology , gerontology , medicine , family medicine , materials science , psychoanalysis , composite material
This study examined attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS within a sample of 220 young men and women. As predicted, a multiple regression analysis revealed that the fear of contracting HIV/AIDS through casual contact was a significant predictor of both men's and women's willingness to interact with people living with HIV/AIDS. Attitudes toward homosexuality were also a significant predictor of attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS among women, who generally have a low risk of contracting the disease in Western societies. These results indicate that attitudes toward people with a serious illness may be strongly related to the perceived risk of contracting the disease.