Coping With HIV: Perspectives of Mothers

Abstract

This qualitative study explored how HIV-infected mothers cope with a diagnosis of HIV and their resulting life circumstances. The study was a secondary analysis of qualitative semistructured interviews with a subgroup of women (N = 35) who had participated in a larger quantitative and qualitative longitudinal study, Living with HIV/AIDS: Mother-Child Coping and Adjustment. The sample for the current study was primarily low-income HIV-infected mothers. Examination of the participants' narratives indicated that they relied on strategies that not only enabled them to cope with HIV but also helped them to develop better attitudes toward life and more positive behavior and to begin to live life differently than before the diagnosis. These results offset the stereotype that low-income women are less capable of coping with stressful life situations than other populations in that the coping strategies used by this population were very similar in form and function to those used by other more advantaged populations.