Psychological well-being in persons receiving HIV-related mental health services: the role of personal meaning in a stress and coping model

Abstract

Objective This investigation examined the association of personal meaning to psychological well-being in adults living with HIV/AIDS receiving mental health services. Personal meaning refers to a framework for delineating the purposes and goals that make life worth living and for evaluating the degree to which these purposes and goals are being fulfilled. Personal meaning was hypothesized to be positively associated with psychological well-being and to contribute independently to the variance in psychological well-being over and above social support, dispositional optimism and coping behavior. Method With the use of a cross-sectional design, a set of self-report measures were completed by 132 adults living with HIV disease at the time of their initial mental health services evaluation. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression techniques. Results Personal meaning was positively associated with psychological well-being, although it did not contribute significantly to the variance in well-being over and above social support, optimism and coping behavior in a multifactorial regression model. Post hoc analysis showed partial mediation by optimism of the association between personal meaning and well-being. Conclusions Personal meaning should be considered along with other psychological and behavioral coping factors in understanding and intervening clinically with individuals living with HIV disease and co-occurring psychiatric concerns.