THE FAMILY HEALTH PROJECT - PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF CHILDREN WHOSEMOTHERS ARE HIV-INFECTED

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.