Young children's awareness, knowledge, and beliefs about AIDS: observations from a pretest

Starting from the assumption that AIDS education can be most effective when initiated prior to the age when AIDS risk behaviors emerge, a number of researchers and public health officials have advocated AIDS education for preadolescents. Yet there have been few published reports assessing children's awareness, knowledge, and attitudes about AIDS and persons with AIDS. In this paper, basic data are presented for each of these dimensions broken down by race, gender, and grade. The data suggest that, although many students are aware of AIDS by the first grade, it is not until the fifth grade that nearly all students are aware of the existence of the disease. Over all, nearly 44% of the students who know about the disease believe that they or someone they know will get it. Students in the fifth grade have a higher level of AIDS knowledge than those in the first grade, but even the former are relatively uniformed and have a number of misconceptions about the disease and persons with it. Children's attitudes reflect confusion and some anxiety over AIDS and the treatment of persons with it. Some significant race and gender differentials are noted.