Coping and depression in HIV+ mothers and development of the HIV+ child

Abstract

Maternal coping, depression and stress and their relationship to infant development were examined in 48 HIV+ mother-infant dyads. Mothers with infants aged six to twelve months completed questionnaires on coping, depression and perceived stress. The Bayley Scale of Infant Development was administered to all infants. Information regarding the true infection status of all infants was obtained one year after the initial data collection.;Mothers utilized emotion-focused coping significantly more often than both problem-focused and avoidant strategies (both p's {dollar}<{dollar}.01). Avoidant coping was the least used mode of coping. Emotion-focused coping was associated with lower levels of maternal depression (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) and lower perceived stress (p {dollar}<{dollar}.01), and was favorably related to both infant cognitive development (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) and infant seroreversion to HIV negative status (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05). Avoidant coping was associated with increased maternal depression (p {dollar}<{dollar}.01). Problem-focused coping had virtually no effect on maternal or infant variables. Stress accounted for 42% of the variance in maternal depression (p {dollar}<{dollar}.01).