Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. HIV/AIDS Study says Death of a Mother More Detrimental to Children than Loss of the Father Joe DeCapua 22 April 2010 Itâs estimated that 15 million children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. But research shows the death of the mother to the disease can have a much greater and longer lasting effect on a child than the death of the father. The study is based on the lives of over 700 children in Kagera, Tanzania from the early 1990s to 2004. Oxford University researchers say they found the role of the mother is âmore essentialâ to the long-term well-being of a child. Stefan Dercon, professor of development economics at Oxford, says, âOur interest was in trying to start to look at longer term impacts of whatâs been happening with the HIV/AIDS crisis.â Many had believed that the loss of the breadwinner father would have greater consequences because of the economic loss to a family. But thatâs not what Dercon and the Oxford team found. âThe impacts of losing a mother were substantially higher and statistically much more significant than anything we could pin down in losing the father in the family,â he says. Not just emotional effects âWe could establish that children who lost their mother before the age of 15 had typically a year less schooling compared to children who didnât experience these kind of events during their childhood. They similarly were two centimeters shorter than otherwise similar children,â he says. He describes these effects as significant. âGiven that average schooling is only about five years or five and a half years, thatâs a substantially lower level of schooling on average for children whoâve lost their mothers,â he says. Dercon adds, âSimilarly two centimeters is actually quite substantial. I was told not so long ago thatâs more or less equivalent to the height gain that was obtained in the U.S. over a 50 year period during the 20^th Century. So these are quite big differences.â And studies show that taller people often earn more money than shorter people and are often considered better at physical labor. Central, crucial The findings, he says, highlights the âcentral role that a mother plays in mediating whatâs happening in the family.â âSomehow they tend to know their children better, their nutritional needs, their other needs and so on. And the fact that sheâs not present anymore may well have a big impact in the way a child gets the opportunities it gets within the family,â he says. He calls the role of the mother âcrucial in terms of translating resources into the well-being of children,â adding, âItâs just highlighting how important a mother would be in being able to respond much better to the needs of children. The study also finds that the economic effects of the death of a breadwinner may not be as big as once thought. âWe probably overstated the economic impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis. And that the way the impacts have worked through families has been far more subtle. And in our case we can show it did work via maternal orphanhood, for example, as one of the possible mechanisms, rather than this kind of total dramatic, pure economic income related effects that people have highlighted,â he says. The findings may lead to new programs to help families affected by the epidemic. âI would be cautious in saying letâs now not give any support to families where the father died and only give it to the families where mothers died. That would be quite wrong to actually conclude from this kind of work. But what we can say is that if we donât take into account carefully the caring relationships within the family, weâre not really going necessarily to reach the children that are affected directly,â he says. Dercon says HIV/AIDS has created a generation of children, who may be âdisadvantaged for the rest of their lives.â .