Psychosocial variables as predictors of psychological distress and well-being in gay men with HIV and AIDS

The present study examined psychosocial variables as predictors of psychological distress and well-being in gay men with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The psychosocial variables investigated included communal and agentic personality variables, social support, as well as social hindrance, and self-determination variables. The total sample comprised 126 gay men. Forty-eight were seropositive for the HIV infection, 40 received a diagnosis of AIDS, and 38 were seronegative for the HIV infection. The participants with HIV and AIDS were recruited from Immunodeficiency clinics and the HIV;Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to assess the predictive utility of each independent variable in predicting psychological distress and well-being. Perceived social support, striving intimacy, and striving achievement were found to be negatively associated with distress and positively associated with well-being across the three groups. Dependency, self-criticism, social hindrance, social hindrance of striving power, and introjective striving motivation were positively associated with distress and negatively with well-being. When all significant independent variables were entered in a regression analysis and simultaneously predicted the outcome variables, perceived social support, self-criticism and social hindrance of strivings significantly predicted psychological distress, and perceived social support, self-criticism, identified and introjective striving motivation predicted psychological well-being. Several independent variables were stronger predictors of distress in the HIV+ group than in the AIDS group: striving power, social hindrance of striving power, dependency, and perceived social support. Results suggest that the HIV+ group is distinct psychologically from the AIDS group. The self-concept theory and the cognitive adaptation theory were discussed in order to explain these group differences. The findings of the present study highlight the important impact psychosocial variables can have on the psychological adjustment of gay men with HIV and AIDS.