R. Forehand et al., THE FAMILY HEALTH PROJECT - PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF CHILDREN WHOSEMOTHERS ARE HIV-INFECTED, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 66(3), 1998, pp. 513-520
The psychosocial adjustment of 87 inner-city African American children
6-11 years old whose mothers were HIV infected was compared with that
of 149 children from a similar sociodemographic background whose moth
ers did not report being HIV infected. Children were not identified as
being HIV infected. Mother reports, child reports, and standardized r
eading achievement scores were used to assess 4 domains of adjustment:
externalizing problems, internalizing problems, cognitive competence,
and prosocial competence. The results indicated that, on average, chi
ldren from both groups had elevated levels of behavior problem scores
and low reading achievement scores when compared with national average
s. Relative to children whose mothers were not infected, those whose m
others were HIV infected were reported to have more difficulties in al
l domains of psychosocial adjustment. Potential family processes that
may explain the findings are discussed.