Who is the right confidant for a Hispanic teen?
Revealing that a person has contracted HIV, in and of itself, did not stir focus group participants’ emotions. Focus group boys and girls shared that the most critical consequence of an HIV diagnosis, second only to sickness, is facing parents. Hispanic youth with whom IQ Solutions talked are keenly aware of the potential for losing face, and suffering grave disappointment, when letting parents down. There was no consensus from the boys and girls we asked with respect to whom they would first tell about an HIV-positive test result. Many Hispanic youth said they might first tell a friend about contracting HIV, as they might not have a sufficiently close relationship to a relative outside a parent. Some were concerned that a relative beyond the nuclear family, such as a cousin, might reveal the news to the extended family. Teens told us they dreaded the idea of their parents’ rejecting-or even disowning-them as a consequence of divulging this type of information. Some youth with strong r
