IMPACT OF AIDS ON ADOLESCENTS TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: (from Applicant's Abstract) Over the last 6 years, we have successfully designed, implemented, and assessed the impact of an enhanced intervention program (Project TALC) with Parents with AIDS (PWA), their adolescent children (Youth of PWA), and the new Caregivers in a randomized controlled trial. The program successfully improved social, behavioral, and mental health outcomes for the Youth of PWA and the PWA over 36 months (92% follow-up); among 46% of the youth who were bereaved by the PWA's death, the intervention appears to have positive results over 18 months for the youth and their Caregivers. The impact of the intervention shifted over time: first problem behaviors increased and then by 12 months decreased over time, sustaining reductions over 36 months. Among the youth whose PWA continues to live (54%), AIDS is being perceived as a chronic illness. While being a successful intervention trial, the study has even greater potential benefits as the first prospective study of bereavement among adolescents and one of the first examining the impact of parental chronic illness on youth in the last 30 years. The potential importance of the cohort led the W.T. Grant Foundation to fund the recruitment of two matched comparison groups: a Neighborhood Control Group and a Chronic Illness Control Group. Thus, we are positioned to examine the transition into early adulthood among four important subgroups of youth: 1) AIDS Bereaved Youth (N=174); 2) Youth of Chronically Ill-PWA (CI-PWA) (N=237); 3) Neighborhood Controls (N=200); and 4) Chronic Illness Controls (N=200). Over the next 3 years, we propose to assess these four subgroups of youth in the following domains at 6-month intervals: a) developmentally-linked tasks of early adulthood (the quality of intimate romantic relationships, parenting, vocational plans); b) indices of social, behavioral, and mental health adjustment; c) the adjustment of the youth's Infant Offspring in terms of attachment, parenting skills, developmental accomplishments; and d) mediating factors including social roles, identities, and grief. These assessments will allow us to examine two major sets of questions: 1) the impact of AIDS on adolescents, both in circumstances of parental death and as chronic illness; and 2) the long term efficacy of an intervention for Youth of PWA.