Enid Schatz of the University of Missouri-Columbia said AIDS compounds the issue of poverty in households where poverty is already a prevailing issue, especially when a family loses its primary income earner to the disease.

"We saw some households that had experienced an AIDS death functioning better than some households that had not experienced an AIDS death," Schatz said in a statement. "Because of all the poverty issues, AIDS just seems to be viewed as 'just another crisis' to the families in South Africa."

The older generation's government pensions play a crucial role in day-to-day survival for families dealing with AIDS, the researchers found.The pensions sometimes maintain an entire household. For example, one elderly woman in the study and her husband support 12 people, Schatz said.

The study, published in the journal World Development, reported many families appeared very resilient and taking care of each other.