15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand — July 11-July 16, 2004

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16;15:Abstract No. LbOrD33

N Long¹, K Miller², R Forehand³, L Armistead⁴, B Kotchick⁵, L McNair⁶, S Wyckoff², G Linder⁴, C Lin-Chen Lin^7
1University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, United States; ²Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States; ³University of Vermont, Burlington, United States; ⁴Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States; ⁵Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, United States; ⁶University of Georgia, Athens, United States; ⁷Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, United States

BACKGROUND: Parents are in a unique position to provide early and continuous HIV prevention messages to their children. Many parents, however, have difficulty communicating due to a lack of information, skills, comfort or confidence. A randomized clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention designed to provide parents with information and skills to overcome these communication barriers.

METHODS: 1115 African-American families from a longitudinal, community based intervention trial were assigned to 1 of 3 intervention arms: comprehensive skills building communication – 5 sessions focusing on communication about sexuality education and sexual risk reduction; brief skills building communication – a single condensed session covering the same content as the comprehensive intervention; and general health (control) – a single session focusing on general health issues. Assessments occurred at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and six-month follow-up.

RESULTS: Generalized estimating equation modeling was used with appropriate controls. Findings indicated that the Comprehensive Intervention was effective in improving parents' report of parent-child communication about sexuality education and sexual risk reduction (both p < .05) at post and at 6-month follow-up. Furthermore, both parent and child reports indicated that parents in the Comprehensive Intervention were more skilled, comfortable and confident during discussions with their children at post and at 6-month follow-up (p < .05 for parent report and for child report). The Brief Intervention only resulted in changes in parent report of parent–child communication about sexuality education at post and 6-month follow-up (p < .05). The General Health Intervention demonstrated no changes.

CONCLUSIONS: The Comprehensive Intervention was effective at increasing skill, comfort and confidence to promote more optimal communication between parents and their children about HIV prevention.

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