Temperament traits, coping style and trauma symptoms in HIV+ men and women

Abstract

This article presents a study of relations between temperament traits and coping style, and intensity of trauma symptoms in HIV+ men and women. The study was run on 310 HIV + individuals (157 men and 153 women) in or not in the AIDS phase. Temperament traits were assessed with the Formal characteristics of behaviour – temperament inventory. Coping styles were assessed with the Coping inventory for stressful situations. Intensity of trauma symptoms was assessed with the Factorial version of the post-traumatic stress disorder inventory. Coping style had the greatest effect on intensity of trauma symptoms. Emotion-focused coping accounted for 13% of the variance of trauma symptom intensity in HIV + participants. Together, sensory sensibility, emotional reactivity and emotion-focused coping accounted for 26% of the variance of trauma intensity symptoms. Emotion-focused coping and emotional reactivity were conducive to increased trauma symptom intensity in HIV+ participants whereas sensory sensibility tended to reduce symptom intensity.