Professor Cynthia “Cindy” Fair and Elon alumna Eliza Gibson ’13 have co-authored an article in the forthcoming edition of Adoption Quarterly on attitudes toward the adoption of children with perinatally acquired HIV.
“I would do HIV adoption one-hundred times over again’: An Exploratory Study on Families with Internationally Adopted Children with PHIV” started as part of Gibson’s research for Fair’s senior seminar in human service studies in spring 2013.
Many participants expressed initial fear about adopting a child with PHIV but gained confidence through education on transmission risks and the improved lifespan of children with PHIV. Few HIV-related challenges were reported and many mothers were strident advocates for the international adoption of children with PHIV.
Adoption Quarterly describes itself as “an unparalleled forum for examining the issues of child care, of adoption as viewed from a lifespan perspective, and of the psychological and social meanings of the word ‘family.'”
Gibson, who came to Elon from Waterford, Virginia, recently graduated from with a Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.