Minorities and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome): Knowledge, Attitudes, and Misconceptions Among Black and Latino Adolescents

• NCJ Number: 110473
• Journal: American Journal of Public Health Volume: 78 Issue: 1 Dated: (1988) Pages: 55-57
• Author(s): R J DiClemente; C B Boyer; E S Morales
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 3 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Free online PDF and HTML access to the American Journal of Public Health is provided by the publisher 24 months after individual issues are released.

Annotation

This study examines the knowledge, attitudes, and misconceptions about AIDS among minorities in San Francisco high schools.

Abstract

The results reveal that white adolescents were more knowledgeable than Black adolescents about the cause, transmission, and prevention of AIDS. Black adolescents were more knowledgeable than their Latino peers. Black and Latino adolescents were approximately twice as likely as White adolescents to have misconceptions about the casual transmission of AIDS. Greater levels of perceived risk of contracting AIDS were associated with deficient knowledge and prevalent misconceptions. (Author abstract modified)