Hope: A new approach to understanding structural factors in HIV acquisition

Abstract

This paper presents the first empirical results of a long-term project exploring the use of hope as a concept summarising people's experience of the social, economic and cultural world they inhabit. The work has its roots in attempts to understand socio-economic aspects of HIV/AIDS epidemiology through recourse to the term 'structural drivers'. In this paper, we recognise the distinguished contribution made by that body of work but adopt a different theoretical approach, one based on the idea of emergent social properties. This is an idea derived from the Durkheim's notion of a 'social current'. One such emergent property is hope and its potential use and applicability as an epidemiological variable is described. The variable is measured using the Snyder scale developed by the late Rick Snyder for quite other purposes in the USA. We use data from the long-standing UK MRC/UVRI General Cohort Study in Uganda together with a smaller study of some fishing communities. The results show that the Snyder scale (1) does measure a real variable, (2) does mean something to Ugandan rural populations and (3) can be used to explore some known risk factors for HIV acquisition.

How does a national poverty programme influence sexual debut among Kenyan adolescents?

“…This measure is intended to capture hope and optimism by assessing respondents’ perception of their ability to achieve a desired goal. This measure takes into account awareness, self-agency, and available pathways ( Snyder et al, 1997 ), and has been used elsewhere in SSA ( Barnett, Seeley, Levin, & Katongole, 2015 ; Senefeld, Strasser, Campbell, & Perrin, 2011 ). Items for this scale were assessed using a one to five Likert scale (total range of 6–30), with higher scores signifying greater optimism.…”

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Practices Exposing Humans to Avian Influenza Viruses, Their Prevalence, and Rationale

“…Recent theoretical61,62 and empirical works explored the use of emergent properties, such as “hope” or “disgust,” as quantitative variables capturing people’s experiences of the social, economic, and cultural world they inhabit. In Uganda, the level of hope that a person experienced was measured and found to be associated with some known risk factors for HIV infection 63. In India, disgust was associated with handwashing behavior 64.…”

The value of hope: development and validation of a contextual measure of hope among people living with HIV in urban Tanzania a mixed methods exploratory sequential study

“…Hope is also shaped by culture and social structural issues of the population where an individual exists. Culture values including religious faith, family unit, and honor can act as a source of resilience, driving social aspirations, motivations, self-respect and dignity [6][7][8][9]. However social structure inequalities can impede realization of dreams and one's cultural expectation thus a source of stress frustration and hopelessness.…”

“…These include poverty, social injustice, war crises and displacements, ineffective governance etc. [7][8][9][10]. Other researchers also add that social hope comes from an individual ability to perceive the existing social mobility (possibilities that life can offer) and its opposite or hopelessness is a sense of entrapment or a sense of having nowhere to go and not poverty [11].…”