To date there have been no systematic, inquiries into 1) the extent of
parent-child AIDS interaction; or 2) the factors that influence wheth
er young children and their parents talk about AIDS. In our sample, fr
om a medium-sized Southern metropolitan area, 70 percent of mothers of
children in the first, third, and fifth grades said they had talked t
o their child about AIDS, but only 41 percent of the mothers said thei
r child had asked them questions about AIDS. Fourteen hypotheses about
factors which might influence mother-child AIDS interaction are deriv
ed from the health/sex socialization literature, In the process of tes
ting these bivariate hypotheses it is shown that, although sons and da
ughters are equally likely to ask their mother questions about AIDS, m
others are more likely to talk to their daughters than their sons abou
t AIDS. This pattern maintains even after controls are introduced. It
is suggested that discussing AIDS with young children as a health issu
e rather than waiting until adolescence and discussing it as a sex iss
ue may be a more effective socialization route. Mothers may be able to
do this with young daughters in the context of women's health, but be
cause most AIDS education for adults generally is sex- rather than hea
lth-oriented they may lack the knowledge and framework to do this with
their sons.