Examining HIV-Positive Parents' Disclosure to Their Children: A Biopsychosocial Approach

Abstract

In the post HAART era, the biopsychosocial issues now facing HIV-positive parents concerning disclosure of their status to their children need to be understood in the context of chronic disease. This article describes the experiences of 101 adult HIV-positive urban in-treatment mothers and fathers of school-age children on disclosure, psychological distress, social support, and symptom severity. Key variables associated with parents' HIV disclosure were the age of parent and of children in the household, parents' HIV-related symptoms, and parent ethnicity. Cultural and maturational, rather than psychological or social factors were significantly related to parents' HIV disclosure.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• parents
• disclosure to children
• biopsychosocial

Notes

This study was funded by The Professional Staff Congress of The City University of New York (PSC-CUNY Award # 62789-00 31).

*p ≤ 0.05

**p ≤ 0.01

***p ≤ 0.001.

*p ≤ 0.05;

**p ≤ 0.01

***p ≤ 0.001.