Public Health Studies alumna, department chair, and national collaborators published the first-known study exploring how parents help their internationally adopted child living with HIV prepare for and manage stigma in Social Science Medicine-Qualitative Research in Health.
Professor Cindy Fair, chair of the Department of Public Health Studies and Watts/Thompson Professor, and alumna Amanda Bingaman ’20 along with national collaborators have published the first-known study exploring how parents help their internationally adopted child living with HIV prepare for and manage stigma in Social Science Medicine-Qualitative Research in Health.
This article was based on part of Bingaman’s Lumen Prize and Honors Fellow research. Co-authors included Fair, Alison Hamilton of UCLA, Dr. Rosemary Olivero of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, and Claudia Crowell of Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich in Germany.
The longitudinal project titled, “Literally the hardest part about having a positive child is disclosure: Child and family stigma management strategies among U.S. parents of internationally adopted children with perinatally-acquired HIV,” analyzed two 60-minute interviews with 24 adoptive parents.
Qualitative analyses identified six child-focused strategies to reduce stigma, including incremental disclosure. Parents considered their child’s maturity and level of curiosity as well as ability to maintain privacy. After full disclosure, strategies were developed to help prepare their child for HIV stigma through education and empowerment. Family-focused strategies included normalizing conversations about HIV as well as race and adoption and limiting disclosure beyond the home through shared family guidelines.
This project was Bingaman’s first hands-on research experience, which inspired and served as the foundation for her early career as a research analyst at RTI, where she specializes in qualitative data analysis. Bingaman continues to build on her qualitative experience at RTI by conducting and supporting interviews and focus groups. Bingaman then uses inductive, deductive and rapid data analysis approaches to analyze the data and formulate meaningful reports for clients. Bingaman works on a variety of projects related to HIV, substance use disorder, GM1 gangliosidosis, among others.
The seeds of this line of inquiry were planted by Eliza Gibson ’13 in Fair’s Human Service Studies Senior Seminar where she was interested in the intersection between adoption and HIV. Gibson and Fair published “I would to HIV adoption 100 times over again” An exploratory Study of Families with Internationally adopted children with PHIV in Adoption Quarterly (2016). Since then, multiple projects have evolved from this early work and it is our hope findings can be applied support this growing population with complex needs