The parent disclosure interview

As the number of HIV-infected women and children in the USA has increased, clinicians and researchers have debated the benefits and risks of disclosur e of parental HIV status to children. Disclosure is usually ascertained thr ough interviews of unknown reliability. Given the need to advance Knowledge regarding the benefits and risks of disclosure of parental HIV status to c hildren, a reliable and comprehensive disclosure interview is needed. The P arent Disclosure Interview (PDI) was developed for this purpose. In order t o study its reliability, 29 HIV-infected mothers were administered the PDI twice, on average one week apart, by two different female interviewers. Kap pa statistics indicate that the PDI is highly reliable in most content area s. Researchers may use the interview for comparing the prevalence of disclo sure among different groups of HIV-infected parents. Practitioners who assi st parents in making decisions about disclosure of HIV status to children m ay use the interview to obtain a baseline assessment of the clients' disclo sure history and attitudes towards disclosure.