Maternal disclosure of mothers' HIV serostatus to their young children

Mothers' disclosure of their HIV serostatus to their noninfected young chil dren and factors associated with disclosure were investigated among 135 fam ilies. Overall, 30% of the mothers had personally disclosed their serostatu s to their children. Mothers who disclosed reported higher levels of social support in their lives than mothers who did not disclose. Children whose m others had disclosed to them displayed lower levels of aggressiveness and n egative self-esteem compared to children whose mother had not disclosed. Th ese findings indicate that for this sample, no negative effects were observ ed among young children to whom mothers have personally disclosed their HIV serostatus.