Factorial invariance across sexes of the six-item Scale of Attitude toward People Living with HIV/AIDS

摘要

An attitude of rejection toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) has a negative effect on their clinical care. Given the importance of assessing the attitude toward PLWHA in medical students and having a reliable and valid instrument for its measurement, the objectives of the article are to test the factorial invariance of the one-factor model proposed for the six-item Attitude Scale for People Living With HIV/AIDS (AS-PLWHA-6) across sexes, as well as to estimate and compare the percentage of acceptance toward PLWHA between women and men. The AS-PLWHA-6 was applied to a sample composed of 202 Mexican medical students. A non-probability sampling was used. The data were analyzed using multi-group factor analysis through Maximum Likelihood. Four one-factor models nested in constraints (same parameters in both samples) were specified. The goodness of fit was statistically equivalent between these four models nested in constraints based on the chi-square difference test. In the model with constraints on all parameters, the data fit varied from close to acceptable. It is concluded that the one-factor model is invariant across sexes, and an attitude of acceptance prevails among students.