Developing a measure of caregiver readiness to disclose HIV serostatus: A tool to promote tailoring of interventions
Principal Investigator: Eric P. Green
Co-Investigators: Katie Schenk, Lisa Langhaug , Eve S. Puffer
The ultimate goal of this study is to provide lay and professional counselors with an easy to use and valid tool to assess and monitor a caregiver’s readiness and self-efficacy (i.e., belief in their ability) to disclose serostatus (the caregiver’s or the child’s) to school-age children. This assessment could in turn promote the tailoring of existing disclosure support interventions, thereby facilitating a healthy disclosure process for caregiver and child alike. To reach this goal, we first conducted a qualitative study in Zimbabwe including focus groups with caregivers and healthcare providers. Through free listing and card sorting tasks related to facilitators and barriers of disclosure, we identified candidate survey items to include in the survey to measure the latent construct of “readiness.” The next phase of the study will include a quantitative validation study of the measure.
Status: Ongoing
Funder: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD 076695)