The Economic Consequences for Parents of Losing an Adult Child to AIDS: Evidence from Thailand

John Knodel, University of Michigan
Wassana Im-em, University of Washington

Despite considerable attention to AIDS orphans, older age parents of those who die from AIDS have been ignored in the research and rhetoric associated with the epidemic. We examine the economic consequences for Thai parents of losing an adult child to AIDS with emphasis on the effects of parental caregiving. The analysis incorporates data derived from three different but coordinated methodological approaches: interviews with local key informants to obtain individual case information; a direct interview survey of AIDS parents (and a control group) using a structured questionnaire; and open-ended interviews with AIDS parents. The first two yield quantitative data while transcripts of the open-ended interviews provide qualitative data. Our analysis has both a substantive and a methodological focus, with the latter consisting of comparisons between key informant and direct interview approaches. The results indicate that the economic impact varies considerably but is systematically related to the parents' economic status.