Minority Pre-doctoral Fellowship Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate's dissertation research is an exploration of the behavioral and sociocultural factors that influence the disclosure of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection to children living with HIV infection, and the efficacy of social support systems to support disclosure, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo From a review of the literature, the candidate has found that there is a limited amount of published research investigating and few culturally appropriate interventions addressing these issues, predominantly in the United States and Europe; no work appears to have been done to date in Sub-Saharan Africa. The candidate has been working as a research assistant on HIV care and treatment projects in Kinshasa for the last fifteen months, and already has made two visits to the site to work on the development of psychosocial support programs. The research proposal includes two phases: a cross-sectional survey of current disclosure patterns among pediatric patients at a Kinshasa pediatric hospital, and a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of an intervention providing psychosocial support to families wishing to disclose.