Journal of Adolescent Research

African-American adolescents (N = 295) reporting high or low levels of social support completed measures of AIDS knowledge, health locus of control, attitudes toward condoms, self-reported sexual behavior for the preceding 12 months, perceptions of personal HIVrisk, and self-and response-efficacy ratings. Adolescents with less social support were less knowledgeable about AIDS, held more negative attitudes toward condoms, and were lower in selfefficacy than adolescents with higher levels of social support. Adolescents with fewer social supports also were significantly more likely to engage in casual sex, reported more nonmonogomouspartners, morefrequent coercions into unwanted sexual activity, and higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. African-American males with low social support scores engaged in more frequent unprotected sexual activity with a larger number of sex partners and used condoms less often. The implications of these results for prevention efforts targeting minority adolescents are discussed.

This study presents a pool of AIDS-related items that researchers and clinicians could use to develop self-report AIDS questionnaires for children and adolescents. A total of 352AIDS-related itemsfrom 18AIDSsurvey studies involving children and adolescents, ranging in age from 10 to 21 years, were submitted to content analysis. Unique items with 85% agreement among raters, and items with the higher percentage of agreement (85% or above) among repeated items, were selected. On the basis of these criteria, 164 AIDS-related items were identified AIDS-related items were integrated intofwve mutually exclusive, theoretically defined groups: (a)factual knowledge, (b) misconceptions, (c) attitudes, (d) perceived susceptibility, and (e) perceived self-efficacy. Selection of itemsfrom these groups could lead to the development of a comprehensive and uniform self-report AIDS questionnaire for children and adolescents, and to meaningful comparisons of AIDS surveys by researchers and clinicians using similar items.

Studies of the long-term influence of parental divorce on adolescents' attitudes toward marriage and actual marriage patterns are reviewed. It is suggested that certain circumstances of parental divorce are associated with more negative views of marriage (particularly if divorce is associated withparental conflictand deterioratingparent-child relationships). However, it is likely that parental divorce has the opposite indirect effect of increasing the likelihood of early marriage for some children of divorce via lowered educational prospects and subsequently reduced socioeconomic status, early homeleaving, and earlier involvement in heterosexual relationships. Possible alternative reasons for these divergent trends in attitudes toward marriage and marital prospects of children of divorce are discussed. First, whether some adolescents hold negative attitudes toward marriage and remain single, whereas others marry early; second, whether initially negative attitudes toward marriage change as a result of the adolescent's experience of heterosexual relationships and entry into adulthood.

One month following the murder of their teacher, 63 adolescents responded to a questionnaire concerning different aspects of the event. Those adolescents who learned about the murderfrom siblings andfriends reported sufferingfrom more intrusive images and depressive thoughts than those adolescents who learned about the event from parents. Girls reported reacting more strongly and talking more with both theirfriends and their parents about the event than did boys. Differing explanations regarding the observed gender differences are suggested Correlations in the data indicate that those students who reported being the most depressed and anxious were those who talked with their friends about the event. Talking with one's parents was associated with less depressive thinking and less avoidance.

As a component of a comprehensive qualitative study of social class influences on schooling, 34 high-income and 40 low-income adolescents were interviewed about various aspects of special education. Qf the low-income respondents, 55% had been classified as learning disabled, mildly mentally handicapped, or emotionally disturbed and had received special education services at some time during theirschooling; whereas only two (6%) high-income adolescents had been classified as learning disabled. Nonclassified low-income students also had considerable contact with friends, neighbors, and relatives who had received special education services. The majority of low-income adolescents had ambivalent or negative feelings about special education. High-income adolescents had little contact with students classified as handicapped and, with few exceptions, they saw special education as a helpful, necessary service. This study indicates that there were social class distinctions in adolescents' opinions and evaluations of special education.