This five-year longitudinal study is a companion grant to our ongoing study of African-American and white IDU fathers and their children. The proposed study focuses on Puerto Rican fathers and their children. The research, which concerns the father's role in his adolescent child's coping and use of drugs, has three foci: (1) The study of the intrapersonal and interpersonal (paternal, maternal, peer, and cultural/context) factors related to the adolescent's ability to cope more effectively with the father being at risk for, or having AIDS; (2) The study of paternal factors in IdU fathers (paternal HIV status, cultural factors, paternal personality/attitudinal attributes, paternal child-rearing practices, and the extent to which the fathers serve as role models for their children) which may influence their adolescent children's drug behaviors; and (3) the study of the paternal dimensions in interaction with the adolescents' own personality and family systems, especially the mothers. The sample will consist of 400 male and female low SES Puerto Rican adolescents and their fathers. Their fathers will be IDUs, 50% of whom are HIV+. Face-to-face structured interviews will be conducted with father, mother, and child. The instruments will include scales with adequate psychometric properties to assess the following areas: parental HIV status, paternal, maternal, and adolescent personality attributes, paternal and maternal child-rearing practices, family relations, cultural/contextual, and peer dimensions. There will be extensive questions on cultural factors (e.g. acculturation), self and other drug use, and strategies of coping. The longitudinal design of the study is essential to examine the complexities of antecedents and consequences in adolescents whose fathers' physical and emotional states may vary over time given the nature of HIV infection. The basic methodology is similar to our ongoing study. The data analysis will consist primarily of causal analysis and/or hierarchical multiple regression, and standard multiple logistic regression analysis. The significance of the study lies in its attempt to examine a greatly under-researched area--the role of the Puerto Rican IDU father in his child's ability to cope and in his child's drug behavior.
