Psychosocial predictors of somatic symptoms in adolescents of parents with HIV: a six-year longitudinal study

• Published in: AIDS care 2008-07, Vol.20 (6), p.667-676
• Main Authors: Bursch, B., Lester, P., Jiang, L., Rotheram-Borus, M.J., Weiss, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; AIDS; Biological and medical sciences; biopsychosocial model; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Counseling - methods; Death; Female; Follow-Up Studies; HIV; HIV Infections - psychology; HIV-1; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Life Events; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; New York; Parent Child Relations; Parental death; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Predictive Value of Tests; Psychological aspects; Psychology, Adolescent; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychosocial Factors; psychosocial predictors; Psychosomatic medicine; Risk Factors; Sick parents; Socioeconomic Factors; Somatic symptoms; somatization; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics; Stressful events; Studies; Substance-Related Disorders - prevention & control; Symptoms; Teenagers; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Youth
• ISSN: 0954-0121; 1360-0451
• DOI: 10.1080/09540120701687042

The objective of this study was to identify salient parent and adolescent psychosocial factors related to somatic symptoms in adolescents. As part of a larger intervention study conducted in NewYork, 409 adolescents were recruited from 269 parents with HIV. A longitudinal model predicted adolescent somatization scores six years after baseline assessment. Adolescent somatic symptoms were assessed at baseline and at 3-month intervals for the first two years and then at 6-month intervals using the Brief Symptom Inventory. Baseline data from adolescents and parents were used to predict adolescent somatic symptoms. Variables related to increased adolescent somatic symptoms over six years included being younger and female; an increased number of adolescent medical hospitalizations; more stressful life events; adolescent perception of a highly rejecting parenting style; more parent-youth conflict; no experience of parental death; and parental distress over their own pain symptoms. Our findings extend the literature by virtue of the longitudinal design; inclusion of both parent and child variables in one statistical model; identification of study participants by their potentially stressful living condition rather than by disease or somatic symptom status; and inclusion of serious parental illness and death in the study.