Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access first published online on November 20, 2008
This version published online on January 30, 2009
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsn119
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Brief Report: A Qualitative Analysis of Discussions about HIV in Families of Parents with HIV
1Virginia Commonwealth University, 2University of California, Los Angeles, 3Children's Hospital Boston, 4Harvard Medical School, 5RAND Corporation, and 6Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rosalie Corona, Virginia Commonwealth University, 806 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. E-mail: racorona{at}vcu.edu
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Objective To explore communication about HIV prevention, risk behaviors, and transmission in families affected by HIV. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 parents with HIV, 27 children (9- to 17-years old), and 19 adult children (
18-years old) across the U.S. Coders reviewed transcripts, identified themes, and coded transcripts. Results Youth felt uncomfortable discussing HIV with their parent who has HIV because they worried about upsetting and reminding the parent of his/her illness. Adult children reported learning about HIV prevention by watching how the illness affected their parents. Few siblings reported talking with one another about HIV because they worried about upsetting their brother/sister and about their sibling unintentionally disclosing the parent's illness to others. Conclusions Discussions between youth and their parent with HIV and their siblings vary, highlighting the need for further research in this area.
Key words: communication; HIV; prevention.
Received March 18, 2008; revision received October 17, 2008; accepted October 18, 2008