Many children of HIV-positive parents are not in their custody Child
Health News
Published: Tuesday, 8-May-2007
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=24861

A new joint study by UCLA and the Rand Corp. shows that more than
half of children with an HIV-infected parent are not consistently in
that parent's custody.

Researchers found that during the two-year study period, 42 percent
of children were not in the HIV-infected parent's custody at any
time.

The research is the first to use data from a nationally
representative sample of people in care for HIV infection to
investigate the custody status of children. The findings will be
presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies
in Toronto on May 7.

"Children of HIV-infected parents are at risk for behavioral and
emotional problems. A stable home may help these children and their
parents cope with the effects of HIV on the family," said lead
author Burt Cowgill, M.P.H., a doctoral candidate in the department
of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health and a
researcher at the UCLA/Rand Center for Adolescent Health
Promotion. "By understanding whether children of HIV-infected
parents remain in their parent's custody, pediatricians and other
physicians may be able to help families address custody issues and
offer referrals to social services."

Cowgill added that pediatricians may also want to suggest that HIV-
infected parents include future custodians in their children's
doctor visits so that these individuals are familiar with the
physical and mental health needs of the children.

Using data from the Rand Corp.'s HIV Cost and Services Utilization
Study, the team investigated whether HIV-infected parents had
maintained custody of their children during the two-year period from
1996 to 1998. They found that 47 percent of children remained in the
custody of an HIV-infected parent, while 42 percent were not in the
parent's custody at any time. The remaining 11 percent were out of
their parent's custody at some time during the study period.

HIV-infected fathers, parents with more advanced HIV disease, drug-
using parents and parents with at least one hospital stay were less
likely to have custody of their children.

A child's other biological parent or other family members
(grandparents, aunts/uncles) were most likely to be the alternate
custodian. Parents cited drug use (62 percent) and financial
hardship (27 percent) most often as reasons for losing custody of
their children. Only 10 percent of HIV-infected parents mentioned
the effects of HIV/AIDS as a reason for not maintaining custody of
their children.

"Improved treatments for HIV have enabled many HIV-infected parents
to live longer. Parents continue to face obstacles that can affect
their ability to maintain custody of their children, including
financial hardship, ongoing drug use, and the effects of HIV/AIDS
and medications used during treatment," said the study's primary
investigator, Dr. Mark Schuster, professor of pediatrics and public
health at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director
of health promotion and disease prevention at RAND.

http://www.ucla.edu