Minorities and AIDS: knowledge, attitudes, and misconceptions among black and Latino adolescents.

White adolescents in San Francisco high schools were more knowledgeable than Black adolescents about the cause, transmission, and prevention of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), and 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. Less knowledge about AIDS and prevalent misconceptions were associated with greater levels of perceived risk of contracting AIDS.