HIV-infected Mothers and Mother-infant Interactions
The attempt to better understand the relationship between both maternal and infant characteristics/behaviors on each other within a HIV-infected population did not come without limitations. A few limitations in study design are important to highlight. All measures were self-report. Therefore, results are subject to intentional and unintentional provisions of misinformation. Additionally, a small and homogeneous sample makes it difficult to generalize the results. Finally, the length and stage of HIV diagnosis for the mothers as well as indices of socioeconomic status were not collected for this study. Maternal health status, along with socioeconomic status, may be an important variable to consider when assessing constructs such as depression and stress. These limitations indicate a need to replicate these findings with a larger sample, using more objective measures and obtaining measures of maternal health status and socioeconomic status.
Limitations
The attempt to better understand the relationship between both maternal and infant characteristics/behaviors on each other within a HIV-infected population did not come without limitations. A few limitations in study design are important to highlight. All measures were self-report. Therefore, results are subject to intentional and unintentional provisions of misinformation. Additionally, a small and homogeneous sample makes it difficult to generalize the results. Finally, the length and stage of HIV diagnosis for the mothers as well as indices of socioeconomic status were not collected for this study. Maternal health status, along with socioeconomic status, may be an important variable to consider when assessing constructs such as depression and stress. These limitations indicate a need to replicate these findings with a larger sample, using more objective measures and obtaining measures of maternal health status and socioeconomic status.
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