Development of an instrument to measure attitudes toward acquired immune deficiency syndrome

The AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS) was developed to measure attitudes toward acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) among college students. In phase one, 67 items, determined by an expert panel to have content validity, were randomly ordered and administered to 164 student volunteers in a large southern university. Fifty-four individual items that correlated significantly (p less than .001) with the total attitude scores were retained for the final version of the scale. In phase two, the revised scale was administered to 135 student volunteers to determine its internal reliability (alpha = .96). Females and older students (21 and over) were significantly more tolerant about AIDS than males and younger students. Preliminary factor analysis revealed three factors explaining approximately 45% of the variance in response patterns; they related to proximity with people with AIDS, moral issues, and social welfare issues. Uses of the instrument in attitudinal studies, program planning, and evaluation are discussed.