Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117595

Tina Henderson, PhD, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles, 760 Westwood Plaza, C9-543, Los Angeles, CA 90024, (310) 267-0515, thenders@ucla.edu

Historically, the African American churches have often served as agencies for delivering health education and disease prevention programs. However, the stigma related to HIV/AIDS complicates the church's role in providing advocacy and support for those coping with this particular health challenge. Using attribution theory, the purpose of this study was to contribute to the understanding of clergy biases towards HIV/AIDS.

The sample consisted of 77 African-American ministers representing churches in the Los Angeles area. Attribution theory proved amenable to assess the ways in which African-American clergy's causal beliefs and assignment of responsibility for HIV/AIDS subsequently generate feelings of anger versus sympathy toward individuals with HIV/AIDS that, in turn, ultimately impact their behavior towards implementing HIV/AIDS health education in their church. The research reported suggests that African-American ministers' perceptions of the contraction of HIV/AIDS play a role in their level of involvement in implementing HIV/AIDS programs within their church.

The ANOVA, correlational, and SEM analyses revealed a consistent pattern to attribution-related judgments as a function of the manipulated cause of HIV/AIDS. Consistent with other attribution research, respondents were least negative (and most sympathetic) toward hypothetical victims who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion and most negative toward the homosexual AIDS victim. The data also revealed that there were differences between conservative and liberal ministers on attribution-related judgments and on the variables that are hypothesized to mediate the relations between conservative theology and willingness to help victims of AIDS.

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