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Psychological adjustment of women with HIV/AIDS: Racial and ethnic comparisons
Author(s) -
Siegel Karolynn,
Karus Daniel,
Raveis Victoria H.,
Hagen Debra
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6629(199809)26:5<439::aid-jcop4>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - ethnic group , puerto rican , psychological distress , depressive symptoms , psychology , mental health , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , demography , normative , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , distress , african american , gerontology , medicine , psychiatry , anxiety , philosophy , ethnology , history , family medicine , epistemology , sociology , anthropology , economics , macroeconomics
The relationship of race and ethnicity with standardized measures of depressive symptomatology and mental health was examined in a sample of HIV‐infected African American (n = 48), Puerto Rican (n = 50), and White non‐Hispanic (n = 48) women in New York City. Mean scores of women from all three racial and ethnic groups were higher than those reported for normative samples on measures of depressive symptomatology and psychological distress, and mean scores on measures of psychological well‐being were lower. Puerto Rican women reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology than either African American or White women. Puerto Rican women also reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of psychological well‐being than African American women. The findings suggest that while all HIV‐infected women are at risk of poor adjustment, Puerto Rican women may be especially vulnerable. They also point to the need for future research to determine what factors in these women's lives are predictive of adjustment, especially those factors amenable to intervention. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.