TABLE 2—

Themes and Example Quotes for Facilitators of Communication: Midwest United States, 2009–2010

Facilitator	Informant or Parent	Example Quotation
Utilizing support
Supportive others (family, friends, health care providers)	Mother	It comes much easier when I’m with my sister, because when I was coming up, she was always there for me, and she told me a lot. When I’m with her and we talk to my kids, it just comes out—I’m comfortable. I don’t sugar-coat nothing. I just tell them… . I’ve always had my family’s (support).
Supportive resources (media, educational materials)	Mother	One day we were in the car. We were coming from church, and we were listening to the radio, and there was something on about it (HIV), so I just went on and told ‘em… . My son asked “How do you get HIV?” I said, “Through sharing needles with drug users and through sex.” And I just told him that I was HIV positive. It was already on the subject, so I just told him.
Focusing on benefits of communication
Protecting child	Mother	I don’t find it hard (to talk) because when I look at it like "well I might have to be the person to save this person’s life," in one way or another it makes it a whole lot easier.
Fulfilling parental duty	Father	To impart a lot of the knowledge that I have on my child, I feel that is my duty.
Having previous relationship with child	Father	At that age (early adolescence), they got to be well-disciplined. Parents in their life… whatever they are doing, the parents do it with them. That makes a difference… those kids’ have a better chance of not getting this virus. Because they’re gonna tell them about it. They’re gonna take them places. They’re gonna do things with them.
Being HIV-positive
Heightened risk awareness	Mother	I don’t know if I would have talked to them about the disease if I had not been positive. But becoming positive made me be conscious of the danger of it, because even though we all know about the disease, knowing about it is different than living with it. So that made me be more cautious… . I would talk to them because I became very aware.
Better knowledge	Mother	If the person is living with the HIV disease, I think that they have more knowledge… . They’re coping with it so they know how it feels to live everyday with the disease. And I feel that they can share their experience, what they know about it. You know, symptoms, the different things that you go through. So I think it does create room (to talk).
Visibility of illness	Mother	(It’s easier to talk) because they’ve seen it first-hand… They’ve seen Timmy (their stepdad who passed away from AIDS complications recently) being (sick)… . It was all there for them to see. They could see the different mood swings… all these doctor visits. (They’d ask) “Why do you have to get all that blood drawn?” You know, they saw me go through that. So yeah, it made it easier to talk about.