Exploring unstructured parent-child communication about sex among African-American adolescents with HIV-positive mothers

Few studies have focused on the sexual health of HIV-affected adolescents despite their exposure to the same community-level factors that contributed to their parent's status. Guided by an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, this study explored HIV-affected adolescents' perceptions on the unstructured sexual health education received from their HIV-positive mothers and its influence on their decision-making and sexual health via six in-depth individual interviews with HIV-affected adolescents ages 15-17 years and a contextual focus group with eight HIV peer educators ages 13-18 years. Findings from this study (1) describe non-positive, HIV-affected adolescents' perceptions of sexual health influenced by parent-child communication about sex and (2) identify deficiencies in sexual health education models available for the unique needs of HIV-affected families.