Care environments for infants and young children affected by HIV/AIDS: final report

The 20-month programme of research collaboration between the Norwegian and South African investigators aim to: 1. Conduct detailed observations of children's activities, care experiences and interactions with caregivers in a variety of modal environments in which children affected by HIV/AIDS receive care, selected from among rural and urban homes, foster families and institutional environments. 2. On the basis of these in-depth ethnographic observations, an instrument will be developed to assess the quality of care environments for small children. The original work plan included the validation of the instrument through its application to the evaluation of care environments of children with known outcomes - well adjusted and healthy children in high-risk environments, as well as children in similar environments whose health, cognitive and social development has clearly suffered. However, this stage will have to be held off until further funding for the project can be found.