title: Ethnicity and sex differences in university students' knowledge of AIDS, fear of AIDS, and homophobia.
abstract: One hundred ninety students at a southwestern urban university participated in a study that investigated ethnicity and sex differences in AIDS-related variables: AIDS knowledge, fear of AIDS, and homophobia. Analysis of data (ANOVA) revealed that African-Americans had significantly lower scores on measures of AIDS knowledge and were significantly more homophobic, compared to Caucasian students. African-Americans also had lower average AIDS knowledge scores than Hispanics. Women had a lower fear of AIDS than men. Relationships between homophobia and fear of AIDS on the one hand, and AIDS knowledge on the other hand, were low and counter-intuitive for African-Americans and Hispanics. This suggests the need for differential efforts in AIDS education programs targeting these groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown, TX 77002, USA. WaldnerL@dt.uh.edu
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Waldner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sikka
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baig
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015206:Southwestern United States; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*