Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Sep;71(5):975-85.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.028. Epub 2010 Jun 8.

Exploring children's stigmatisation of AIDS-affected children in Zimbabwe through drawings and stories

Catherine Campbell  1 , Morten Skovdal, Zivai Mupambireyi, Simon Gregson
Affiliations

Exploring children's stigmatisation of AIDS-affected children in Zimbabwe through drawings and stories

Catherine Campbell et al. Soc Sci Med. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

AIDS-related stigma is a major contributor to the health and psychosocial well-being of children affected by AIDS. Whilst it is often suggested that AIDS-affected children may be stigmatised by other children, to date no research focuses specifically on child-on-child stigma. Using social representations theory, we explore how Zimbabwean children represent AIDS-affected peers, examining (i) whether or not they stigmatise, (ii) the forms stigma takes, and (iii) the existence of non-stigmatising representations that might serve as resources for stigma-reduction interventions. Our interest in identifying both stigmatising and non-stigmatising representations is informed by a theory of change which accords a central role to community-level debate and dialogue in challenging and reframing stigmatising representations. In late 2008, 50 children (aged 10-12) were asked to "draw a picture of a child whose family has been affected by AIDS in any way", and to write short stories about their drawings. Thematic analysis of stories and drawings revealed frequent references to stigmatisation of AIDS-affected children--with other children refusing to play with them, generally keeping their distance and bullying them. However children also frequently showed a degree of empathy and respect for AIDS-affected children's caring roles and for their love and concern for their AIDS-infected parents. We argue that a key strategy for stigma-reduction interventions is to open up social spaces in which group members (in this case children) can identify the diverse and contradictory ways they view a stigmatised out-group, providing opportunities for them to exercise agency in collectively challenging and renegotiating negative representations. Contrary to the common view that drawings enable children to achieve greater emotional expression than written stories, our children's drawings tended to be comparatively stereotypical and normative. It was in written stories that children most eloquently expressed meanings and emotions, and an awareness of the complexity of the scenarios they portrayed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Three-step analysis of drawings.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Person living with AIDS and on ARVs.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
People bedridden from AIDS are close to death.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
AIDS-affected child busy caring for sick parent.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Drawing of an AIDS-affected child who is crying.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Drawing of neighbour and ‘doctor’ (community health worker) visiting an AIDS-infected parent.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Child sustaining the household through care and domestic work.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Attride-Stirling J. Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research. 2001;1(3):385–405.
    1. Backett-Milburn K., McKie L. A critical appraisal of the draw and write technique. Health Education Research. 1999;14:387–398. - PubMed
    1. Baggaley R., Sulwe J., Chilala M., Mashambe C. HIV stress in primary school teachers in Zambia. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation. 1999;77(3):284–287. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhana D. Beyond stigma? Young children’s responses to HIV and AIDS. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2008;10(7):725–738. - PubMed
    1. Bhana D. “AIDS is rape!” gender and sexuality in children’s responses to HIV and AIDS. Social Science & Medicine. 2009;69(4):596–603. - PubMed

Publication types