Helleringer Stéphane, Kohler Hans-Peter
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6299, USA.
Popul Stud (Camb). 2005 Nov;59(3):265-82. doi: 10.1080/00324720500212230.
The study presented here is an investigation of the importance of social interactions to perceptions of the risk of AIDS, and explores spousal communication about the AIDS epidemic in rural Malawi. A fixed-effects analysis based on longitudinal data collected in 1998 and 2001 shows that social interactions on the subject of HIV/AIDS have significant and substantial effects on respondents' perceptions of the risk of HIV/AIDS, even after controlling for unobserved factors that affect the selection of social networks. These effects are more complex than previously thought. The dominant mechanisms--social learning and social influence--are found to vary by sex and by region, because of regional variations in the marriage pattern and the resulting implications for the formation of local social networks. The conclusion of the study is that rather than fostering denial and inaction, social interactions are an important vector of change in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
本文所呈现的研究是对社会互动在艾滋病风险认知中的重要性的一项调查，并探讨了马拉维农村地区夫妻间关于艾滋病疫情的交流情况。基于1998年和2001年收集的纵向数据进行的固定效应分析表明，即便在控制了影响社交网络选择的未观测因素之后，围绕艾滋病毒/艾滋病主题的社会互动对受访者的艾滋病毒/艾滋病风险认知仍具有重大且实质性的影响。这些影响比之前认为的更为复杂。研究发现，由于婚姻模式的地区差异以及由此对当地社会网络形成产生的影响，主要机制——社会学习和社会影响——因性别和地区而异。该研究的结论是，社会互动并非助长否认态度和不作为，而是面对艾滋病毒/艾滋病疫情时变革的一个重要推动因素。
