Characteristics of parents who discuss AIDS with their children--United States, 1989.

In one multisite, primary health-care program in 10 large cities in the United States, 3% of participating adolescents engaged in behaviors that increased their risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (i.e., prostitution, injecting-drug use, male homosexual behavior, or behaviors leading to ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases [STDs]); 16% of these adolescents had had more than six sex partners or a nonulcerative STD in the previous year. In the United States, schools are an important setting for education about HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); however, the potential role of parents in educating their children about this problem has not been well characterized. To determine characteristics of parents who reported discussing (or not discussing) AIDS with their 10-17-year-old children, CDC analyzed data from the 1989 National Health Interview Survey, a national multistage probability survey of U.S. households conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.