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.
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.
McKee
Laura
L
Psychology Department, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
Jones
Deborah J
DJ
Roland
Erin
E
Coffelt
Nicole
N
Rakow
Aaron
A
Forehand
Rex
R
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