Assessing Willingness to Care for Persons With AIDS: Validation of a New Measure

Abstract

Objective: This article describes the development and validation of the Willingness to Care Scale, a multifactorial measure assessing the experiences of informal caregivers for persons living with AIDS (PLAs). Willingness to care describes one’s attitude toward providing emotional, instrumental, and nursing support. Method: Interviews were conducted with 155 caregivers of PLAs on caregiving and psychosocial concerns. Results: Strong evidence was found for factorial and content validity and reliability. Conclusion: The tool may be used by social workers to assess the potential for and monitor the functioning of task-focused caregiving relationships. Issues in sampling for HIV/AIDS research are discussed.