Ever wondered what high school students know about AIDS? Two decades after the federal government mandated in-school instruction on the life-threatening virus, Weekly Reader Research surveyed American high schoolers to find out if it's working.
Of the 1,000 polled in grades nine through 12:
- Four percent do not believe that AIDS can be spread through sexual intercourse.
- Seventy-six percent do not know how many people die of AIDS every day.
- Eighty-seven percent believe that AIDS is mostly a problem for homosexual males, African Americans and women.
- Thirty-six percent believe that AIDS is an issue for the international community but not the United States.
- Nineteen percent believe AIDS can be spread through casual contact with an infected person.
- Eight percent believe AIDS can be spread through tainted food.
- Sixty-two percent believe that students should begin learning about AIDS as early as middle school.
The survey, conducted March 913, polled 520 boys and 480 girls.
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