Variable predictors of attitudes toward the legalization of abortion

This paper updates and expands the study of abortion attitudes originally done by Blake and del Pinal (1980). Since 1978, the last year examined by those authors, the American public's approval of the legalization of abortion initially increased but then dropped to the lowest level ever recorded by the General Social Survey. Religion, as coded by Blake and del Pinal, and education continue to be strong predictors of abortion attitudes as are individual's beliefs about premarital sex, divorce, and euthanasia. A major finding of this study is that the same factors which predict abortion attitudes among persons having polar positions on the subject also predict abortion attitudes among the general population.     

Contextual and ideological dimensions of attitudes toward discretionary abortion

This study examines the contextual and ideological dimensions of attitudes toward discretionary abortion using two national surveys. The abortion attitudes are dichotomized in terms of consistent opposition versus consistent support. Discriminant analysis, partial correlations, and stepwise regression procedures are used in the analysis. Findings indicate that education and attendance at religious services are the two most significant contextual dimensions and sexual permissiveness and fertility ideology are the two most significant ideological dimensions for explaining attitudes toward discretionary abortion. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Pregnant women's attitudes toward the abortion of defective fetuses

A survey asked 190 pregnant women their opinions on whether a hypothetical other woman would be justified in having an abortion under ten different circumstances, four of which related to abnormalities of the fetus. They were then asked whether they would be justified in having an abortion under these same circumstances. Also assessed were these women's views concerning the justifiability of abortion for a specific group of fetal abnormalities, neural tube defects. Respondents were more likely to view abortion as justifiable for a hypothetical other than for themselves. However, there was no evidence that pregnant women's views about abortion are more conservative than those of the general public. The majority of respondents considered abortion of a defective fetus to be justified, both for themselves and for others. The best predictor of abortion attitudes was respondent's views about the ideal number of children in a completed family.This research was supported by a grant from Maternal and Child Health Research, Bureau of Community Health Services, DHHS. Reprint requests should be sent to Dr. Ruth Faden at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Division of Health Education, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205.     

A socio-psychological analysis of attitudes toward fertility]

This is an introduction to the study of attitudes toward fertility and the psychosocial factors that influence them. Both individual and group attitudes are included. The author also examines how such attitudes change over time.     

Using Mokken methods to develop robust cross-national scales: American and West German attitudes toward abortion

A fundamental methodological issue in cross-national research on attitudes is the comparability of the attitude measures across populations. We address this issue by presenting the Mokken method and accompanying Mokken test as a means for developing equivalent attitude scales. We apply these methods to an analysis of the responses to seven abortion items in the 1982 NORC GSS and West German ALLBUS combined files. We find that the seven items form a unidimensional scale in both countries and that four of these items constitute a scale that is robust across the two populations. We conclude by describing how such results can be used to guide the development of Rasch and LISREL models.     

An exploration of attitudes toward female genital cutting in Nigeria

Female genital cutting (FGC) continues to be widespread particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. We use data from the 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey to consider factors that influence attitudes toward this procedure held by Nigerian women aged 15–49. We test four models: model 1 explores whether attitudes are consistent with a view of FGC as a social convention associated with marriageability of women. Model 2 examines the impact of modernization factors such as education and urbanization. In model 3, the influence of media and community activities are considered. Model 4 includes all of the factors in the three previous models. We find strong support for considering FGC a social convention. Modernization has minimal impact on attitudes about FGC mainly through its influence on the social convention.

Cross-cultural comparison of attitudes toward welfare-state programs: Path analysis with log-linear models

Many studies to date regarding public support for welfare-state programs do not have an adequate theoretical model and fail to consider differences in public support for contributory vs. means-tested programs. Moreover, these studies seldom take into account cross-cultural variations. This study presents and tests the validity of a three-tier model in which socio-economic variables influence social ideologies which, in turn, differentially affect support for contributory and means-tested programs. Using comparable data from two countries — Israel and the United States — a path analysis with log-linear models is applied, indicating that, while important cross-cultural differences exist, the model is generally confirmed.     

Physicians' attitudes toward homosexuality and HIV: survey of a California Medical Society- revisited (PATHH-II)

In 1982, Mathews et al. surveyed San Diego County Medical Society's (SDCMS) physicians about their attitudes toward homosexuality. They found significant differences in prevalence of homophobic attitudes by gender, year of medical school graduation, specialty, and practice setting. To assess current physicians' attitudes toward homosexuality and persons with HIV infection, an anonymous, self-administered, 17-item survey was mailed to all 4,385 members of the SDCMS and 1,271 UCSD physicians. The survey included items measuring attitudes toward homosexuality and toward entry to medical school and referral patterns, conditional on sexual orientation and HIV status of hypothetical referents. Only 3% of respondents would not admit a highly qualified homosexual applicant to medical school compared with 30% in 1982. Similarly, 9% would discontinue referrals to a gay pediatrician compared with 46% of respondents in 1982. Forty-two percent would not admit a "highly qualified but asymptomatic HIV-infected applicant with excellent response to antiretroviral therapy to medical school" and 66% would discontinue referral to a general surgeon known to be HIV infected. In multiple logistic regression analyses controlling for sex and medical school affiliation, significant (p < 0.05) independent predictors of being in the highest 10% on an HIV-phobia scale were year of graduation from medical school and degree of homophobia (model ROC = 0.77). This survey suggests a substantial reduction in homophobia since 1982. However, attitudes toward homosexuals and year of graduation from medical school appear to be significant predictors of attitudes toward persons with HIV infection.     

The trend and pattern in attitudes toward abortion in the United States, 1965–1977

Using replicated questions from nationwide surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center in 1965 and yearly in 1972 through 1977, this paper traces the trend in attitudes toward abortion and examines these attitudes in relation to several sociodemographic characteristics known to be related to the attitudes. People have become remarkably more tolerant of abortion since 1965, although there has been relatively little change in overall level of approval in the 1970's. Approval remains strongly related to education, race, and religion and rather weakly related to age, with little evidence of polarization or homogenization in attitudes by people in different sociodemographic aggregates.     

Self-perceived origins of attitudes toward homosexuality

Undergraduate students (N = 417) at a large southern university responded to open-ended questions designed to assess self-perceived origins of attitudes toward homosexuality and circumstances that may prompt a shift in attitudes. Inductively coded responses pointed to a positive correlation between attitudes toward homosexuality and experience interacting with gay men or lesbians; this is discussed in the context of Allport's (1954 ) contact hypothesis and Herek's (1984 , 1986 ) theory of functional attitudes. Implications are discussed for education and intervention efforts aimed at facilitating understanding and tolerance of gay men and lesbians.     

The differential migration of population in China: the analysis on sample survey data on urban population migration in 74 towns]

The paper analyzed data from a migration survey in 74 Chinese cities and towns in 1986. Several characteristics of the migrant population were found from the data analysis. The biggest proportion of migrants was in 20-24 age group. This age group sent 26.1% of the migrants to metro-cities, 27.6% to large cities, 25.1% to median sized cities, 22.4% to small cities, and 22.2% to towns. Migrants in the 15-29 age groups accounted for 50% of the migrants to different-sized cities and towns. Female migration is 4.2-15.4% lower than male. The proportion migrating because of marriage ranged between 84/7-92.5% to different-sized cities for females, which is much higher than for males. The level of education in the migrant population is higher than in the general population, as educational qualifications are important for job opportunities. Those with middle school and above education, make up the bulk of the migrants, and 30-40% of the migrant population to big cities increased their educational level after migrating. The currently and never married comprise, the majority of the migrant population, while the number of widowed and divorced is minimal (2 and 0.4%, respectively). Most of the widowed were 60 years old and migrated for subsistence to cities where their children lived. Among the unmarried migrants, female make up 1/3. Whereas among the married, there are more females than males.     

Multiple dimensions of attitudes about homosexuality: development of a multifaceted scale measuring attitudes toward homosexuality

Attitudes toward homosexuality are complex. To get a comprehensive view on the attitudes of people, different dimensions need to be included in research. Based on a review of the literature, we distinguish five dimensions: acceptance of homosexuality in a general sense; attitude toward equal rights; reactions to homosexuality "at close quarters"; reactions to homosexuality in public; and so-called modern homonegativity. In a study on a representative sample of Dutch Defence personnel (N = 1,607) we tested this model. Structural equation modeling of several items measuring the attitude toward homosexuality offers a six factor solution. These six factors are more or less comparable to the five dimensions we distinguished. The dimension "reactions to homosexuality at close quarters" is, however, empirically split in a dimension on affective reactions to homosexuality and homosexual persons in general and a dimension on affective reaction to homosexual friends or acquaintances.     

An analysis of public opinion toward undocumented immigration

Public opinion toward illegal migration to the United States varies considerably across different segments of the population, but little is known about why some individuals hold more liberal attitudes than others. Several hypotheses are scattered throughout the research literature, but they have not been brought together in one place and tested using a common data set. Nor have the limited tests been satisfactory from a methodological standpoint. Instead of using multiple regression, typically analysts have relied on cross-tabulations of the data. This paper tests five hypotheses about attitudes toward illegal immigration and undocumented migrants using public opinion data from southern California. Only weak support is found for a labor market competition hypothesis. There is firmer evidence for hypotheses relating to cultural affinity between respondents and undocumented migrants and to the role of education. Respondents' evaluations of tangible costs and benefits to themselves also influence their assessments of illegal immigration. Finally, the results of this analysis provide additional support for a symbolic politics model of opinion formation when the model is extended to the issue of undocumented migration to the United States.     

Sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuals: a meta-analytic review

Sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuality were examined using Glass's d as an estimator of effect size. There was a small mean effect (d = .207) indicating that males have more negative attitudes than females toward homosexuals. However, this effect was found to decrease in magnitude when sample size was controlled for, with larger studies being less likely to have a sex difference. Year of publication was also found to be related to the effect sizes with more recent studies tending to show a larger effect size. Sex of target is also discussed as a potentially important variable.     

Public attitudes toward gays and lesbians: trends and predictors

Public opinion about gay men and lesbians is a popular topic in both the popular press and academic journals. However, analyses of attitudinal trends are rare. Tracing changes in opinion polls on homosexuals in the United States between 1977 and 2003, the first part of the present study showed that public opinion of this minority group has become more positive over time. Part two of this research utilized a recent national survey to identify factors predicting anti-gay attitudes. The best predictors included respondents' sex, stance of anti-abortion and anti-women's equality, and religiosity. Implications for gay rights advocates were discussed.     

Knowledge of contraceptives: An assessment of world fertility survey data collection procedures

The paper assesses which method of collecting data on knowledge of contraceptives is preferable; the open-ended question approach in which knowledge of all methods is obtained from the answer to a single open-ended question, or the method-specific approach, in which specific questions are asked about knowledge of each method. Data from countries participating in the World Fertility Survey are used as a basis.

The analysis indicates that knowledge obtained from answers to method-specific questions would be higher than that obtained from answers to a single open-ended question. For some generally well known and up-to-date methods like the pill and the IUD the difference between the results of the two methods of questioning would not, however, be large. For methods like rhythm, withdrawal, condom and other less effective methods the differences would be staggering.

Statistics on knowledge tabulated by ever and current use of a method are used to establish that the open-ended question approach is actually deficient. From these statistics it is also established that the method of questioning on knowledge directly affects the reported levels of ever and current use.

Reported levels of use would be considerably lower if knowledge were to be obtained through an open-ended question only, as compared to use levels obtained after a series of questions on knowledge of specific methods. The results indicate that there is no easy method for obtaining good information on knowledge and use of contraceptives. The results of any ‘quick and dirty’ method of questioning, so often used in surveys which do not aim at the detailed study of contraception, cannot, therefore, be trusted. Furthermore, any comparison of data on knowledge and use of contraceptives will depend on the degree of comparability of the type of questions used.     

Indicators of modern health attitudes in an urban setting: An exploration of the attitude — Behavior relationship

This paper explores the components and determinants of health attitudes that have accompanied the process of modernization in Accra. Due to the numerous failures to predict behavior from unidimensional measures of attitudes, a multidimensional approach to health attitudes was used. Factor analysis of the components revealed that this multidimensional tripartite structure of health attitudes is theoretically meaningful. Both the simple correlational and multivariate analysis of responses form a sample interview survey of 1000 women show that social, structural and community factors are important determinants of modern health attitudes; and that the influence of modern health attitudes on utilization behavior is independent of the effects of education and general modernity. The implications of these for health care delivery are discussed.     

Experiential versus rational training: a comparison of student attitudes toward homosexuality

Based on Epstein's (1994a) cognitive-experiential self-theory, two new training interventions were designed to teach students about gay, lesbian and bisexual issues. The efficacy of these theoretically based interventions was assessed in a short-term (7-week, three occasion) longitudinal study. Fifty undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: Rational Training, Experiential Training, or Control Group. A residualized change score procedure was used to analyze change in levels of sexual prejudice and affect across the three types of measurement (pre-test, post-test, and follow-up). A 3 (Rational Training, Experiential Training, Control Group) x 2 (Low Sexual Prejudice, High Sexual Prejudice) MANOVA revealed that after the training, participants in the Experiential Group (affective training) had more accepting attitudes toward homosexuality compared to the Control Group. In addition, participants in the Experiential Group experienced more positive affect compared to the Rational and Control Groups and experienced more negative affect compared to the Rational Group. Findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.