Parents’ disclosure of their HIV/AIDS status to their children and its effects on the children’s behaviour in Makete district, Tanzania
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Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Dodoma
Abstract
This study was conducted in Makete District Tanzania, with the aim of examining parents’ disclosure of their HIV/AIDS status to their children and its effects on children’s behaviour. This was a qualitative study which employed ethnographic research design using in-depth interview, focus group discussion, observation and documentary analysis as tools for data collection. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and a total of 70 informants were included in the study using purposive and snowball sampling techniques.
The findings of this study have revealed that factors which influence parents’ decision to disclose their HIV/AIDS status include children‘s maturity, education, children‘s suspicion, parents’ illnesses, parents’ need for treatment supporters, clearing children‘s misconceptions and the need to disclose children’s HIV/AIDS status. The findings have also shown that parents used their own approaches to disclose their HIV/AIDS status to their children as there were no specific guidelines to facilitate health care workers to advice PLWHA on approaches that should be used to disclose their HIV/AIDS status to their children. With regards to the contents, the study has found out that parents mentioned openly to their children that they were HIV positive. Contextwise, disclosure mainly took place in the home environment and in rare cases disclosure took place away from home. The timing was based on parents’ good health condition and when children were in good moods. The study did not find out any negative behavioural outcomes from children as a result of parents’ HIV/AIDS disclosure.
Description
Doctoral thesis (PhD in Social Science)
Keywords
HIV/AIDS, HIV, AIDS, Makete, Tanzania, Parents, Children, HIV/AIDS status, Health care, Health care practitioners
Citation
Isanzu, N. H. (2018) Parents’ disclosure of their HIV/AIDS status to their children and its effects on the children’s behaviour in Makete district, Tanzania (Doctoral thesis). The University of Dodoma, Dodoma.