Abstract
Objectives
This study aimed to evaluate whether belief in a just world is associated with community-level
abortion stigma.
Study design
From December 2020 to June 2021, we conducted a national U.S. survey of 911 adults
using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Survey respondents completed both the Community-Level
Abortion Stigma Scale and Global Belief in a Just World Scale. We used linear regression
to evaluate the association between just-world beliefs, demographic characteristics,
and community-level abortion stigma.
Results
The mean Global Belief in a Just World Scale score was 25.8. The mean Community-Level
Abortion Stigma Scale score was 2.6. The strength of just-world beliefs (β = 0.7),
male gender (β = 4.1), a history of a previous pregnancy (β = 3.1), post college education
(β = 2.8), and strength of religious beliefs (β = 0.3) were associated with higher
community-level abortion stigma. Asian race was associated with lower community-level
abortion stigma (β = −7.2).
Conclusions
After controlling for demographic characteristics, strong just-world beliefs were
associated with higher community-level abortion stigma.
Implications
Understanding just-world beliefs may provide a potential target for stigma-reduction
strategies.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 15, 2023
Accepted:
February 2,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 1,
2023
Received:
July 4,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
☆Funding: This work was supported by Ola Hawaii of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a component of the National Institute of Health (Grant # U54MD007601-34). This funding agency did not influence the final data interpretation or the resulting paper. This publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official view of these agencies.
☆☆Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.
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