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.