LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS--MOTHER/CHILD COPING AND ADJUSTMENT

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DESCRIPTION (adapted from the Abstract): The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of HIV-positive status on urban, low SES, primarily African-American mothers, and their uninfected, school-aged children. The primary purpose is to identify variables that show promise as the basis for interventions that will reduce the risk for impaired psychosocial adjustment in the school age children of these mothers. To achieve this purpose, the proposed research will address the following specific aims: (1) provide a sociodemographic description of HIV-positive mothers and uninfected school age children; (2) evaluate a model of the relation between maternal HIV-associated stressors and child psychosocial adjustment that includes the constructs of maternal and child coping, maternal and child support, maternal emotional adjustment, and the mother-child relationship; and (3) examine the relations between maternal coping, child coping, and mother's degree of custody planning for her child. Characteristics of the study include: sample size determined by power analysis (N=216 mother-child pairs); the use of reliable and valid instruments; and multivariate data analyses, including discriminant function, multiple regression, and latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM). Extensive collaborative networks have been established with community HIV/AIDS agencies serving virtually 100% of the target population in metropolitan Detroit. Based on the results of this research, including the test of a causal model, points of intervention in this high-risk population of mothers and children will be identified. The model as proposed will provide information for the development and implementation of psychosocial nursing interventions concerned with the assessment of HIV-related stressors, coping strategies of mothers and children, social support resources, quality of parent-child relationship, and family-specific custody planning.