African American College Students’ Attitudes toward HIV/AIDS: Implications for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Abstract

This paper investigated African American college students’
responses to a set of interview questions selected from a larger survey
instrument in an exploratory study of basic attitudes about HIV/
AIDS. Forty-two participants responded to an interview schedule in
an investigation of student attitudinal domains regarding the HIV/
AIDS epidemic. Results show that while most students’ attitudes
were consistent with expectations, a number of students expressed
attitudes that are counterproductive in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Given the epidemic within the African American community,
such findings appear ominous and implore strategies, in particular,
from the institution whose primary function is the education of its
populace. Unless aggressive steps are taken to address the problem
across college and university campuses, there can be no lessening
of the epidemic’s impact within this community, and thereby no
positive impact toward the goal of U.S. lowered rates consistent with
recent global trends.