Home-based care for parents with AIDS: impact on children's psychological functioning

Abstract

Objective: This study explored the concept of home-based care for people living with full-blown AIDS and the impact of this on their children's psychological functioning. There were 30 children in the study whose parents had full-blown AIDS. The comparison group comprised 30 children. The parents of the children in the comparison group reported that they did not have full-blown AIDS and were not registered as AIDS patients with their community home-based care group. Method: The children's psychological functioning and performance on cognitive tasks were examined, using the Impact of Event Scale — Revised, the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), the Stress Symptoms Checklist, the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the British Ability Scales and Daniel and Diack's Graded Spelling Test. Result: The results of the study showed that children whose parents had full-blown AIDS showed mental distress and low cognitive performance on numerical and spelling skills. Conclusion: The findings of the study seem to suggest that although the home-based care concept is a noble and global idea, it should be accompanied by psychological support mechanisms to mitigate the effects of traumatic stress that normally follow exposure to a traumatic event. Suggestions for further research on the topic are discussed.