Behavioral risk in early adolescents with HIV+ mothers

Abstract 

Purpose

To examine the effect of maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection on sexual and drug use risk behavior, delinquency, and general behavior problems in early adolescents.

Methods

Baseline data from an ongoing longitudinal study are presented. Participants are 220 HIV-negative early adolescents (aged 10–14 years), 100 with HIV-infected mothers, and 120 with uninfected mothers from ethnic minority, low income, families living in inner-city communities. For two group comparisons, Chi-square and Student’s t-tests were used. Multiple and Logistic regressions were conducted to control for age and examine multiple predictors simultaneously.

Results

Few early adolescents, particularly those younger than 13 years, reported penetrative sexual behavior (oral, anal, or vaginal sex, 7%) or drug use (12%). Nonpenetrative sexual behaviors (kissing, 35%), alcohol use (39%), and engaging in at least one delinquent activity (45% of boys, 26% of girls) were more common. By age 14 years, 21% of the youths reported penetrative sexual behavior and 72% reported alcohol use. Penetrative sexual behavior was significantly associated with delinquent behavior and substance use. There were no differences in risk behaviors between youth with and without HIV-infected mothers. However, among youth with HIV+ mothers, those who knew their mother’s status had more thought problems (p = .042) and reported more frequent alcohol use (p = .018) than those youth who didn’t know.

Conclusions

Maternal HIV status did not significantly add to the risk for problem behaviors in our sample of urban ethnic minority early adolescents. Fourteen years of age appeared to be a critical time for increased experimenting with sexual behavior and substance use.

Keywords:  Maternal HIV disease , Sexual behavior , Substance use , Behavior problems , Early adolescence