The impact of HIV/AIDS on family dissolution is one of the most serious problems facing
the world at this era of HIV/AIDS. The traditional African family is collapsing very
rapidly due to HIV/AIDS pandemic. Implications of having HIV/AIDS in the family have
been documented in many parts of the world. They range from increased medical costs
and expenditures on funerals to withdrawal of family members from work or school to
look after those who are ill. Also these problems lead to burdens to the family in terms of
human pain, suffering, health care expenditures, school requirements, child- headed
households and increased families headed by single parents. Although efforts have been
taken by the government and other partners to address these issues, the problems are still
rapidly increasing throughout the country and Makete in particular. If challenges that face
families are not examined, there is a danger of destroying a large and growing segment of
our young population. The overall objective of this study was to determine the impact of
HIV/AIDS on family dissolution. The study adopted a cross sectional design by using
open and closed ended questionnaires applied to a sample size of 135 respondents.
Interviews with key informants, individual in-depth and focus group discussions (FGD)
were also used during the study. The analysis of collected data was done using the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the Statistical Analysis System (SAS).
A Logit regression model was used to estimate the influence of socio-cultural, socio-
economic and other external factors on respondents’ family dissolution. Family dissolution
was high (42.6%) among households controlled by widows/widowers. The conclusion is
that, family dissolution in Makete is not much affected by migration but is much affected
by death of household members and economic hardship of the area. To ease this situation,
it is recommended that, among other things, new infections of HIV/AIDS should beiii
reduced in order to limit the number of widows and orphan headed households and to
improve economic well being of the people.
Nicholas Francis