Spirituality and psychological adaptation among women with HIV/AIDS: Implications for counseling

Survey interviews with 230 predominantly African American and Puerto Rican low-income women who were living with HIV/AIDS in New York City revealed high levels of spirituality and spiritually based coping with HIV. Both spirituality indicators positively correlated with the frequency of receipt of HIV-related social support; they were negatively related to recent drug use. Two hierarchical regression analyses that controlled relevant covariates indicated positive correlations between the spirituality indicators and psychological adaptation (i.e., a composite measure of depressive symptomatology, mood states, mastery, and self-esteem). The beneficial effect of spiritually based coping persisted even when other types of coping were controlled. The discussion considers implications for counseling women living with HIV as well as for research and theory in the area of spiritually based coping. HIV challenges an individual physically, socially, and psycho-logically. Furthermore, it may threaten one’s sense of meaning, purpose, and significance in life. Research on other life-threatening illnesses has indicated that individuals often turn to religion and spirituality to cope (Dein & Stygall, 1997; Demi