Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Stress When Parents Are Living with Aids

• Published in: Family process 1998-03, Vol.37 (1), p.83-94
• Main Authors: ROTHERAM-BORUS, MARY JANE, ROBIN, LEAH, REID, HELEN M., DRAIMIN, BARBARA HERMIE
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - ethnology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - psychology; Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; African Americans - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Conflict (Psychology); European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; Family Conflict; Health Status; Hispanic Americans - psychology; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Life Style; Linear Models; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; New York City, New York; Parent Child Relations; Parent-Child Relations - ethnology; Parents; Psychological Stress; Psychology, Adolescent; Sexual Behavior - psychology; Social Perception; Stress, Psychological - ethnology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids
• ISSN: 0014-7370; 1545-5300
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1998.00083.x

Parental perceptions of conflict and stress with their adolescent children are described, and their associations with demographic factors, physical health, and lifestyle are examined. Adolescent‐parent conflicts, parenting stress, and parents' health, substance use, and sexual lifestyle were assessed among 151 parents living with AIDS. Parents living with AIDS reported a mean of 3.3 (SD = 1.3) areas of conflict with their adolescents and 1.5 (SD = 1.7) stressful parenting events over the previous 3 months. The parents were very ill, with many physical symptoms and diseases. Simultaneously, substance use was common (17% used daily), but not injection drug use (3.3%). Half had a sexual partner (63% protected their partners by using condoms consistently). Regression analysis revealed that parent‐adolescent conflict was significantly associated with high parental drug use; stressful parenting events were significantly related to the lifestyle (high drug use and frequent sex acts) of Latino and African American parents, but not of white parents. Results of the analysis indicate that, in contrast to parents with other illnesses, parent‐adolescent conflict and stressful parenting events were not influenced by parents' health status, but were significantly influenced by substance use and sexual lifestyles.