Measuring medical and nursing students' attitudes toward AIDS.
Investigated attitudes toward AIDS patients among medical and nursing students. Two separate cohorts of students (total N = 550) were surveyed to examine and then validate with confirmatory factor analysis the latent factor structure of such attitudes. Results indicate that a three-factor structure representing fear of contagion, negative emotions, and professional resistance provides a good fit to the data (goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = .92, parsimonious GFI = .67). We offer the resulting 15-item AIDS Attitudes Scale (AAS) as a reliable and valid measure for assessing health care students' attitudes toward working with AIDS patients. Our results suggest the presence of multiple predictors of such attitudes.
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Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto, CA 94303.
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Irish
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Ficarrotto
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D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016079:Refusal to Treat; D012307:Risk Factors; D012928:Social Desirability; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*