While initially looking to explore “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Longitudinal Emotional-Behavioral Functioning Among Youth Born to Women Living With HIV,” doctoral student Jemar Bather found a more surprising outcome to his research– that youth who were born without HIV had worse behavioral functioning than youth who were born with HIV.
Bather’s advisor Paige Williams and others contributed to the study that drew on data from the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) Adolescent Master Protocol and was published on July 1, 2021, in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
“To explain the counterintuitive findings, Bather and his co-authors speculated that it could have something to do with the fact that youth with HIV are monitored every three to four months for HIV care. These regular check-ins would include access to clinicians, social workers, and psychologists—services that may not be as accessible for children who are not living with HIV.”
Bather believes in having this data that “rather than being reactive to the problems faced by these youth, it’s important to take more preventive measures.”
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