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“They're Scared of It”: Intergroup Determinants of Attitudes Toward Children With HIV 1
Author(s) -
Greenland Katy,
Maser Barbara,
Prentice Tracy
Publication year - 2001
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.1559-1816.2001.tb00166.x
Subject(s) - psychology , prejudice (legal term) , perspective (graphical) , mainstream , anxiety , psychological intervention , affect (linguistics) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , social psychology , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medicine , family medicine , philosophy , theology , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science
The study used an intergroup perspective to explore teachers’ willingness to teach children with HIV within mainstream education. One hundred thirty‐eight teachers from 13 high schools across the United Kingdom participated in a survey. The results suggest that previous contact with an individual who was HIV positive (whether an adult or a child) was strongly associated with greater willingness to teach a child with HIV. However, this effect disappeared when intergroup anxiety, positive affect, and positive beliefs were included as covariates. There was little evidence that instrumental variables (i.e., relatively pragmatic concerns about infection) were associated with willingness to teach. Participants who had some contact reported lower fear of contagion from a child with HIV, but there was no evidence that this was associated with overall attitudes. The results are interpreted to suggest that interventions to reduce prejudice should not simply concentrate on improving knowledge about HIV transmission.