Social Stigma, HIV/AIDS Knowledge, and Sexual Risk: A Cross-Cultural Analysis1

The main aim of this study is to evaluate relationships linking social stigma, HIV/AIDS knowledge, and sexual risk among African American (AA) and South African (SA) college students. One major barrier to HIV prevention efforts is the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. Based on the Burkholder et al. (1999) findings, persons who engage in greater stigmatization of persons with AIDS (PWA) and gay people are associated with greater sexual behavior risk for HIV/AIDS. The present study attempted to replicate the Burkholder et al. study using African American and South African college students, but the findings were inconsistent with the aforementioned study. AA respondents had higher social stigma of PWA and gays and higher condom self-efficacy. While SA respondents were less likely to stigmatize PWA and gay persons and had high-perceived risk of being infected, they reported engaging in high-risk sexual behavior. The authors discuss the differences that may account for the dissimilar findings.