Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Homophobia--Iowa; Older people--Iowa--Attitudes; AIDS (Disease)--Study and teaching; Homophobia; Older people--Attitudes; Iowa;

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the level of AIDS knowledge and presence of homophobia among a group of community active elderly in the Cedar Falls-Waterloo area. Demographic factors including gender, age, education level, annual income, religious faith, level of religious activity, personal knowledge of a person who is gay, personal knowledge of a person with HIV/AIDS, history of a blood transfusion, and history of HIV testing were also assessed to determine if they had a statistically significant effect on AIDS knowledge and homophobia. The relationship between AIDS knowledge and homophobia was also examined to determine if they were related in a statistically significant manner. This study utilized a quasi experimental research design. Fourteen Caucasian volunteer respondents (seven male and seven female) ages 65 through 85 completed a 56-item survey eliciting responses to demographic information, AIDS knowledge, and homophobia statements. Hudson and Ricketts' (1980) Index of Homophobia was utilized to evaluate the presence of homophobia. The t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were utilized to determine if the specified demographic variables had a statistically significant effect on both AIDS knowledge and homophobia. The Pearson product-moment correlation was utilized to determine if there was an overall significant relationship between AIDS knowledge and homophobia. All statistical analyses were executed at the 0.05 level of significance. The mean AIDS knowledge score for the sample was 14.21 out of 18 (79%) and the mean homophobia score was 65.36 (range: 48 -88), which was in the low grade homophobic range. No statistically significant effect was found for any of the demographic variables of interest and their effect on AIDS knowledge and homophobia. In addition, no statistically significant relationship was found between AIDS knowledge and homophobia. However, there was a lack of accurate

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Thomas M. Davis

Second Advisor

Susan J. Koch

Third Advisor

Joel W. Wells

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (67 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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