| The purpose of the research was to study factors related to African-American women's willingness to be caregivers of a loved one with HIV/AIDS. Willingness to care for a person with this progressive disease was examined in terms of the women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS, beliefs about HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS related risk-taking behavior. This study also assessed the association African-American women's willingness to care with six demographic variables: Age; Geographic Location; Religiosity; Having a friend or co-worker with HIV/AIDS; Having a friend or co-worker with a chronic illness other than HIV/AIDS; and Caregiving History. This convenience sample consisted of African-American women (N=102) between the ages of 21-66 residing in and around the Big Bend area of North Florida.;Willingness to care was defined by the Willingness to Care Scale (WTC; Abell, 2001). The WCS measures an individual's attitude toward providing emotional, instrumental, and physical support to a person living with AIDS. Knowledge, beliefs, and risk behaviors were measured by the AIDS Knowledge, Feelings, and Behavior Questionnaire (AKFBQ; Dancy, 1991). The scales of the AKFBQ included HIV/AIDS Knowledge (basic facts, transmission and prevention), HIV/AIDS Risk Behavior (sexual behavior/substance abuse, sexual assertiveness), and Feelings about HIV/AIDS. |
