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Parent‐Adolescent Conflict and Stress When Parents Are Living with Aids
Author(s) -
ROTHERAMBORUS MARY JANE,
ROBIN LEAH,
REID HELEN M.,
DRAIMIN BARBARA HERMIE
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1998.00083.x
Subject(s) - psychology , substance use , family conflict , adolescent health , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , nursing
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.