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The Impact of Stigma and Social Support on Development of Post-traumatic Growth Among Persons Living with HIV

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Abstract

Given high rates of trauma in people living with HIV (PLH) and the health benefits of posttraumatic growth (PTG), understanding how to foster PTG in PLH exposed to trauma could be of interest to clinical psychologists working with this population. The current study examined factors theoretically related to development of PTG in PLH, namely HIV-related stigma, disclosure of HIV status, and emotional support. A sample of 334 HIV-positive adults answered a battery of self-report questionnaires. HIV-related stigma, disclosure to sexual partners, and emotional support were significant predictors of PTG: stigma was associated with lower PTG, whereas disclosure and emotional support were associated with higher PTG. Disclosure and emotional support remained significantly associated with PTG in the model including demographic factors and stigma. These findings highlight the need for development of interventions that can aid PLH in disclosing their HIV status to sexual partners and increasing available social support.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grant #R01 MH072386 (PI: Cheryl Gore-Felton, PhD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rochester, Saunders Research Building, 265 Crittenden Blvd, Box 420658, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    Charles Kamen

  2. PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium, 1791 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    Chaniga Vorasarun, Ty Canning, Eliza Kienitz, Carolyn Weiss, Sergio Flores & Darryl Etter

  3. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Susanne Lee & Cheryl Gore-Felton

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  1. Charles Kamen
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  2. Chaniga Vorasarun
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  3. Ty Canning
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  4. Eliza Kienitz
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  8. Susanne Lee
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Correspondence to Charles Kamen.

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Conflicts of Interest

Charles Kamen, Chaniga Vorasarun, Ty Canning, Eliza Kienitz, Carolyn Weiss, Sergio Flores, Darryl Etter, Susanne Lee, and Cheryl Gore-Felton declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Kamen, C., Vorasarun, C., Canning, T. et al. The Impact of Stigma and Social Support on Development of Post-traumatic Growth Among Persons Living with HIV. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 23, 126–134 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-015-9447-2

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