Differentiating the effects of positive and negative social transactions in HIV illness

✍ Scribed by Ralph Swindle; Kenneth Heller; Michael Frank

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 102 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6629(200001)28:1<35::aid-jcop5>3.0.co;2-b

✦ Synopsis

This study examines the role of positive and negative social transactions in HIV illness as influenced by depressive symptoms and alcohol comorbidities. Our model distinguishes between confidant and broader network transactions, and between overt criticism and undermining transactions. This is a sample of 121 Human Immunodeficiency Virus positive (HIVϩ) patients from two urban infectious disease clinics surveyed to assess the quality of both the confidant relationship and the broader social network, depressive symptoms, alcohol abuse, and HIV health symptoms. In hierarchical regression analyses, criticism from the broader network was related to symptoms of alcohol abuse, whereas disappointment with transactions from the broader network were more often associated with depressive symptoms. Negative confidant relationships and negative network transactions were both associated with greater severity of HIV illness, and were predictive of subsequent emergency room utilization.