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Just-word beliefs and community-level abortion stigma: An exploratory survey
Paris Stowers1, Ronald Heck2, Katalin Csiszar3
1University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women's Health, 82 Puuhonu Place #205, Hilo, HI, USA.
Objectives:
This study aimed to evaluate whether belief in a just world is associated with community-level abortion stigma.
Study Design:
From December 2020 to June 2021, we conducted a national U.S. survey of 911 adults using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Survey respondents completed both the Community-Level Abortion Stigma Scale and Global Belief in a Just World Scale. We used linear regression to evaluate the association between just-world beliefs, demographic characteristics, and community-level abortion stigma.
Results:
The mean Global Belief in a Just World Scale score was 25.8. The mean Community-Level Abortion Stigma Scale score was 2.6. The strength of just-world beliefs (β = 0.7), male gender (β = 4.1), a history of a previous pregnancy (β = 3.1), post college education (β = 2.8), and strength of religious beliefs (β = 0.3) were associated with higher community-level abortion stigma. Asian race was associated with lower community-level abortion stigma (β = -7.2).
Conclusions:
After controlling for demographic characteristics, strong just-world beliefs were associated with higher community-level abortion stigma.
Implications:
Understanding just-world beliefs may provide a potential target for stigma-reduction strategies.
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