Missed opportunities for HIV prevention: Results of a qualitative study on mother-daughter communication

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the role of communication among African American mothers living with HIV and their daughters in HIV prevention. Multiple themes emerged from our analysis of semistructured interviews with mothers (n = 15), and their adult daughters, (n = 15) such as perceptions of HIV risk communication, HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. The findings of the study revealed differences in communication between mothers and daughters. Daughters felt they did not receive adequate and frequent HIV prevention advice from their mothers. Implications include strengthening communication content between mother-daughter dyads in HIV prevention programs that can aid in reducing HIV risk.

Keywords:

• African American women
• communication
• HIV/AIDS
• mother-daughter
• prevention
• qualitative
• sexual risk

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. Integrated model of mother/daughter communication about HIV prevention for mothers living with HIV/AIDS (Edwards et al., 2013).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health Grant# 2R25MH087217-06