Li YH, et al. - Researchers performed a retrospective cross-sectional study on wave 1 data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health comprising 1,619 African Americans (AAs) youth aged 14–18 years, to determine the correlation between epidemiological and self-perceived risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)/HIV among young AAs and the multilevel factors identified using ecodevelopmental theory. As per Cohen’s k-coefficient of 0.144, the youths’ self-perceived risk was significantly different when compared to epidemiological risk (the “gold standard”). Low epidemiological risk of contracting STDs/HIV was observed to be positively correlated with adolescents who felt like talking to their mother had no trouble getting along with schoolteachers, perceived that teachers treated student fairly, experienced mother’s disapproval of their sexual debut, and had close friends who knew how to use condoms correctly. High epidemiological risk of contracting STDs/HIV was observed in correlation with being older, male, and a mother’s positive attitude toward their adolescent’s use of birth control (in exosystem). Furthermore, low accuracy of self-risk perception among AA youths was observed in correlation with poor connection with the mother (did not feel like talking to mother) and growing older. Findings thereby suggest the strong necessity to align self-perceived risk with epidemiological risk of acquiring STDs/HIV using the key multilevel ecodevelopmental system factors identified.