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Stigma and Attributions of Blame toward Persons with AIDS (PWAs)

A sample of 227 undergraduate students was administered pre-intervention paper-and-pencil questionnaires to assess homophobia, fear of AIDS contagion, symbolic representations of AIDS and homosexuality, and specific personality attributes including authoritarianism, religiosity, and conservatism. Participants then read one of eight intervention vignettes about an ill person; these vignettes varied by sexual orientation of the patient, disease (AIDS versus lung cancer), and mode of transmission (in the AIDS conditions). Participants then completed post-intervention measures assessing the degree to which the ill person in the vignette was responsible and to blame for his illness, the level of stigma toward him, and concerns about social interactions with him. Results indicate the following: a) Attributions of personal responsibility are primarily a function of mode of illness transmission; b) fear of AIDS contagion is predictive of stigma and social avoidance of PWAs; and c) AIDS-related stigma and attributions of blame are largely a function of symbolic associations between homosexuality and IV drug abuse (which were previously stigmatized) and AIDS.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc278400
Date08 1900
CreatorsHenschel, Peter W. (Peter William)
ContributorsGuarnaccia, Charles Anthony, Engels, Dennis W., Burke, Angela J., Sewell, Kenneth W.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 149 leaves, Text
CoverageUnited States - Texas - Denton County - Denton, 1995
RightsPublic, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved., Henschel, Peter W. (Peter William)

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