Child resiliency in inner-city families affected by HIV: the role of family variables

Abstract This study examined the role of family variables in child resiliency within a sample of African-American, inner-city children whose mothers are HIV-infected. Variables from three dimensions of the family were included: family structural variables, maternal variables, and mother-child (parenting) variables. The participants were 82 children between the ages of 6 and 11 and their HIV-infected mothers. Correlational analyses indicated that resiliency was associated only with three parenting variables: parent–child relationship, parental monitoring, and parental structure in the home. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated a multiplicative relationship between parental monitoring and parent–child relationship and between parental monitoring and parental structure in the home, suggesting that parenting variables potentiate each other. Clinical implications of the findings are considered.