title: Maternal HIV/AIDS and depressive symptoms among inner-city African American youth: the role of maternal depressive symptoms, mother-child relationship quality, and child coping.
abstract: This study was designed to examine interactions between psychosocial risk (i.e., maternal depressive symptoms) and protective (i.e., child coping skills and mother-child relationship quality) correlates of depressive symptoms among inner-city African American children of mothers with and without HIV/AIDS. Two primary hypotheses were tested: (a) whether these correlates interact differently in HIV-infected and noninfected samples and (b) whether child coping skills and a positive mother-child relationship interact to protect children from developing depressive symptoms in the context of maternal HIV infection. Results indicated that (a) a positive mother-child relationship, but not child coping skills, was protective in the HIV-infected sample when maternal depressive symptoms were high and (b) the combination of a positive mother-child relationship and child coping skills was associated with the lowest level of child depressive symptoms in the HIV-infected sample. These findings highlight the differential importance of various risk and protective mechanisms for HIV-infected and noninfected African American samples and, as such, have preventative implications for children of HIV-infected women.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.forename: Deborah J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roland
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Coffelt
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rakow
authors.forename: Rex
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Forehand
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011204:Poverty Areas; D001741:Black or African American