he men had to be either living with the child or have seen the child at least four times in the past year (majority of the children live with the mother). A total of one hundred and one father-child pairs participated in this study; 71 identified themselves as African-American and 27 identified themselves as White (the other three identified themselves as other). All father participants had used intravenous drugs or illicit drugs (other than marijuana or in addition to marijuana) by a non-injection route of administration within the past five years. Participants that were not considered for this study include those who had AIDS dementia, those who were too sick to participate in the study, and those who had a major psychiatric disorder (i.e., bipolar disorder or schizophrenia). Each patient voluntarily reported his own HIV status. Over 98% of the subjects reports of their HIV status were confirmed by the ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) and the Western Blot tests. Of the 101 father participants, 38% were HIV positive and 62% were HIV negative. Only children who were already aware of their fathers HIV status were qualified to participate in the study. Procedure: After providing informed consent, each father-child pair was interviewed for approximately four hours using a structured questionnaire. The interviewers were either counselors or social workers at an AIDS clinic or a methadone maintenance treatment clinic and had extensive experience working with substance abusers and/or HIV positive patients. Every attempt was made to match the participants and the interviewers in terms of their ethnic backgrounds. The interviews were conducted privately and the confidentiality of the data was strictly preserved. Each father-child pair participant was given $50 to compensate for his/her time and expenses. Measures: The scales used in this study were based on their item (question) inter-correlation. These scales were grouped into four do...
