The effects of an eight-hour affective education program on fear of Aids and homophobia in student nurses

Frances Allen Brown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Abstract

Research was conducted to determine the relationship between fear of AIDS and homophobia, and to determine the effects of an eight-hour affective education program in reducing homophobia and fear of AIDS in associate degree nursing students (n = 22). The Neuman Systems Model guided the study and a portion of Bandura's social learning theory provided the framework for the education intervention; A quasi-experimental time-series design (pretest/posttest I/posttest II) with a control group was used. Instruments to measure homophobia and fear of AIDS were the Homophobia Scale and the Fear of AIDS Scale developed by Bouton and colleagues (1987); Within group comparisons of fear of AIDS and homophobia were made utilizing Pearson r. There was no statistically significant correlation found between measures of homophobia and fear of AIDS. To determine the effects of an eight-hour affective education program on homophobia and fear of AIDS, paired t-tests were computed. There was no statistically significant decrease of homophobia or fear of AIDS in the experimental group (n = 11) or the control group (n = 11). The hypothesis was that homophobia and fear of AIDS would be decreased in the experimental group as a result of the affective education program. Instead, the experimental group actually had an increase in homophobia and fear of AIDS.