Posttraumatic Growth and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in People with HIV

Abstract

Receiving a diagnosis of HIV can be challenging. People with HIV (PWH) can experience high levels of distress, as well as some positive psychological changes associated with post-traumatic growth. However, the mechanisms which underlying the association of a highly stressful event (i.e., being diagnosed with HIV) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are under-explored, and this is the focus of the study. Cross-sectional survey data were provided by 77 PWH living in New Zealand. An analysis examined the roles of deliberate rumination and coping strategies as serial mediators of the associations between event centrality and PTG and PTSSs. The relationships between event centrality and PTG and PTSSs were found to be sequentially mediated by deliberate rumination and avoidance coping, but not by deliberate rumination and active coping. Further analyses explored active coping and deliberate rumination as parallel mediators, with avoidance coping as a subsequent mediator, between event centrality and PTG and PTSSs. However, these analyses were not supported. The findings indicate that the more participants appraised the HIV diagnosis as central, the greater PTG they perceived; however, the more they deliberately ruminated on it, and the more avoidance coping they adopted, the less PTG and greater PTSSs they perceived. Future studies need to explore the relationships of event centrality and coping and their associations with PTG and PTSSs.

People Living with HIV and AIDS: Experiences towards Antiretroviral Therapy, Paradigm Changes, Coping, Stigma, and Discrimination—A Grounded Theory Study

“…A high level of adherence is necessary for successful treatment with ART [ 9 ]. This corresponds with agreed recommendations, shared decision-making, patients’ perception, and experiences from the Health-Care Professionals (HCPs) as cornerstones for ART adherence [ 10 ]. Despite the decreasing fear of AIDS and the paradigm change by the reduction of old clichés, PLWH are still confronted with discrimination and stigmatization in different areas of life [ 11 ].…”

Path to posttraumatic growth: The role of centrality of event, deliberate and intrusive rumination, and self blame in women victims and survivors of intimate partner violence

“…Unfortunately, they did not include self-blame as a coping strategy but typically venting and mental disengagement are assigned to the same avoidance coping category as self-blame. Chi et al (2022) found that deliberate rumination was positively associated with avoidance coping in people with HIV. Existing studies indicate mixed findings about relations between types of rumination and coping strategies, giving more attention to deliberate than intrusive rumination.…”

“…Changes can be experienced in the view of the self, relationships with others, and/or worldview and philosophy of life ( Tedeschi and Calhoun, 1995 ; Tedeschi et al, 2018 ). Studies investigate PTG in various trauma survivors such as war veterans ( Maguen et al, 2011 ), terminal illnesses ( Chi et al, 2022 ), natural disasters ( Jia et al, 2017 ), and accident survivors ( Nishi et al, 2010 ), however, some traumatic experiences such as IPV still receive less attention ( Elderton et al, 2017 ). The dynamics of IPV make it hard to apply the knowledge about PTG from other traumatic contexts.…”

Dyadic coping and illness adjustment after stroke: A longitudinal prospective study.

“…Regarding associations with coping, few studies provide information on correlative associations between event centrality and several individual coping strategies. These report positive correlations between event centrality and problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, avoidant coping, and active coping (Boals & Schuettler, 2011; Chi et al, 2022).…”