Maternal disclosure of mothers' HIV serostatus to their young children.

Mothers' disclosure of their HIV serostatus to their noninfected young children and factors associated with disclosure were investigated among 135 families. Overall, 30% of the mothers had personally disclosed their serostatus to their children. Mothers who disclosed reported higher levels of social support in their lives than mothers who did not disclose. Children whose mothers had disclosed to them displayed lower levels of aggressiveness and negative self-esteem compared to children whose mother had not disclosed. These findings indicate that for this sample, no negative effects were observed among young children to whom mothers have personally disclosed their HIV serostatus.