Cindy Fair, associate professor of human services, has published an article titled, “The Emotional and Educational Functioning of Children Living with Maternal HIV/AIDS and Substance Use.” The article appears in the most recent issue of Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.
Fair studied a group of 30 children 6-15 years of age whose mothers were HIV-positive and used substances. She compared their emotional and educational functioning to a group of children whose mothers also used substances, but were not HIV-positive.
Fair found both groups of children were at increased risk for behavioral problems and poor school performance. Children whose mothers were HIV-infected had poorer emotional functioning when their mother experiences HIV-related symptoms compared to children whose mothers were not symptomatic. Paradoxically, results also indicated that children whose mothers were HIV-positive were significantly less likely to be rated as disruptive during the interview than the comparison group children.