Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered

WILL DOMESTIC TOURISTS ADHERE TO HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOL DURING POST COVID 19 PANDEMICS? EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Indonesian domestic tourists’ protection behavior intention when travelling during the post-pandemic phase. This study employs the protective motivation theory (PMT) that involves the variables of perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy to predict the protective behavior intention. Data were collected through 210 distributed questionnaires toward Indonesian domestic travelers. The collected data was analyzed by using SmartPLS. The Indonesian domestic travelers are mostly willing to comply with the health and safety procedure as imposed by the government when travelling during the post-pandemic phase. However, the respondents do not perceive themselves as vulnerable to the spread of covid 19 virus during traveling. The compliance toward the implementation of health and safety protocols and self confidence among Indonesian domestic tourists are high during traveling. Nevertheless, they do not consider themselves to be vulnerable with the covid 19. The results revealed that people are well-accustomed with the new normal to protect themselves from the exposure of covid 19 during traveling. The value of this study is the finding that the majority of Indonesian domestic tourists have adopted the safety and health protocol which increase their coping strategy in dealing with covid 19 as a threat during traveling.  

DO YOU FIND HEALTH ADVICE ON MICROBLOGGING PLATFORMS CREDIBLE? ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY AND HEALTH THREAT IN CREDIBILITY ASSESSMENT

Despite the increasing prevalence, microblogging users are likely to face great challenges in assessing the credibility of health information due to the user-generated nature of content and length restriction on each microblog post. In this study we aim to explore how microblog users assess the credibility of health advice in terms of microblog posts. By incorporating the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Protection Motivation Theory, we theorize that users’ self-efficacy expectation of health actions recommended in a microblog post and their perception of health threat induced by the post can influence their elaboration processes of credibility assessment. As a study in progress, specific design of a controlled laboratory experiment to test the proposed hypotheses is included. Upon completion, this study can potentially provide important theoretical implications in the areas of online health information, microblogging and credibility literature

Coping with HIV-seropositive status: a psychoneuroimmunological perspective

Twenty-seven HIV-infected homosexual men participating in an experimental drug trial were included in a psychoneuroimmunological investigation of the association between levels of short-term emotional distress, methods of coping, hopelessness, loneliness, joy, and CDS-cell counts, CD4-cell counts, and the cumulative rate of CD4-cell decline since infection. A survey of needs was included. The sample (n = 27) was significantly more depressed (p p 0.05) were found for all problem-focused coping and emotion-focusing coping scales, nor for coping by means of focusing upon and venting of emotions. Five subjects who had been infected for less than two years were excluded from analyses regarding immune functioning. For the remaining 22 subjects, no significant associations between psychosocial factors and CDS-cell counts were found (p > 0.05), nor were there any significant associations between measures of short A regression model containing the coping scales of suppression of competing activities and mental disengagement predicted 33.3 percent of cross-sectional CD4-cell counts (f = 4.737, df = 2, 19, p < 0.05). Both factors were negatively associated with CD4-cell counts. A regression model containing the coping methods of focusing upon and venting of emotions and mental disengagement predicted 29 percent of CD4- rates of decline over time (f = 3.874, df = 2, 19, p < 0.05). The venting of emotions scale was associated with slower rates of CD4-cell decline over time (r = -0.433, df = 21, p < 0.05), while mental disengagement coping was associated with faster rates of CD4-cell decline (r = + 0.314, df = 21, p = 0.16). A median-split of scores on the focusing upon and venting of emotions coping scale and CD4-rates of decline reveals that high venting scores are found in 77 percent of subjects with slow rates of decline, while low scores are evident for 78 percent of those with fast rates of cumulative CD4-cell decline since infection. It was concluded that these results are consistent with previous research concerning with the immunosuppressive effects of habitual repression of emotions and the long-term maladaptive effects of avoidance coping. -term POMS scales of emotional distress and CD4-cell counts and rates of decline over time

Survey of children accessing HIV services in a high prevalence setting: time for adolescents to count?

OBJECTIVE: To establish the proportion of adolescents among children infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Zimbabwe who receive HIV care and support, and what clinic staff perceives to be the main problems faced by HIV-infected children and adolescents. METHODS: In July 2008, we sent a questionnaire to all 131 facilities providing HIV care in Zimbabwe. In it we requested an age breakdown of the children (aged 0-19 years) registered for care and asked what were the two major problems faced by younger children (0-5 years) and adolescents (10-19 years). FINDINGS: Nationally, 115 (88%) facilities responded. In 98 (75%) that provided complete data, 196 032 patients were registered and 24 958 (13%) of them were children. Of children under HIV care, 33% were aged 0-4 years; 25%, 5-9 years; 25%, 10-14 years; and 17%, 15-19 years. Staff highlighted differences in the problems most commonly faced by younger children and adolescents. For younger children, such problems were malnutrition and lack of appropriate drugs (cited by 46% and 40% of clinics, respectively); for adolescents they concerned psychosocial issues and poor drug adherence (cited by 56% and 36%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Interventions for the large cohort of adolescents who are receiving HIV care in Zimbabwe need to target the psychosocial concerns and poor drug adherence reported by staff as being the main concerns in this age group

Coping with HIV Stigma among People Living with HIV in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Introduction: People living with HIV are related to experience stigma and discrimination. Stigma can disrupt mental health and PLHIV have coping strategies to overcome internalize stigma. This study aimed to describe how PLHIV cope with HIV stigma.Methods: This study used explanatory design. The quantitative data were collected to describe the internalized HIV stigma with 100 participants using a questionnaire and analyzed using multiple regressions. The qualitative data from the second phase were used to build on or explain the qualitative data with 14 participants using purposive sampling method and analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: The participants reported to have low extent of internalized HIV stigma (mean=1.80) and the highest item was feeling guilty (mean=2.2) using quantitative analysis. The demographic profile were not significant predictors of internalized HIV stigma. The result from qualitative analysis was the coping internalized HIV stigma among PLHIV divided by negative and positive coping stigma, such as emotional and cognitive coping, behavior coping, social coping.Conclusion: PLHIV have low extent of internalized stigma. The coping internalized HIV stigma among PLHIV was divided by negative and positive coping stigma

Designing Primary Prevention for People Living with HIV

Today, there are new reasons for a sharper focus on prevention for people living with HIV. Growing numbers of people with the disease are living more healthy, sexual lives. Recent evidence suggests that risk taking among both HIV-positive and negative people is increasing. After nearly two decades of life in the shadow of AIDS, communities are growing weary of traditional prevention messages and many people are openly grappling with difficult questions of intimacy and sex. Increasingly, people living with HIV also face multiple complex economic and substance abuse challenges that complicate prevention efforts.There is an urgent need -- and sufficient expertise -- to move forward with prevention campaigns focused on helping people living with HIV and AIDS avoid passing their infection along to others. Numerous innovative interventions for people with HIV show promise, including:a social marketing campaign for gay men and a five-session group intervention for women living with HIV in Massachusetts,a chat line for positives and a group session program for Latinas/Latinos in Los Angeles,Internet chat room interventions in Atlanta,a group session for gay Asian American-Pacific Islander Americans living with HIV in San Francisco, andPrevention Case Management programs newly funded by the Centers for Disease Control