Self-esteem, social support, internalized homophobia and the coping strategies of HIV+ gay men

This study had two aims: (a) to examine the relationship between self-esteem, social support, internalized homophobia and the coping strategies used by HIV+ gay men; and (b) to examine the relationship between the use of specific coping strategies and mood state. Eighty-nine HIV+ gay men completed a questionnaire package consisting of the Nungesser Homosexual Attitudes Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Revised Kaplan Scale, and the Ways of Coping Scale. Hierarchical stepwise regressions were conducted on the data with Avoidant (Escape-Avoidance and Distancing) and Proactive (Seeking Social Support and Positive Reappraisal) coping serving as criterion variables and self-esteem, social support, homophobia, and the interaction terms of homophobia x self-esteem and homophobia x social support serving as predictor variables. After removing the effects of time since diagnosis and stressor type, only small amounts of the total variance for each coping strategy could be explained by the predictor variables. Correlations between mood state and coping strategies were also low or nonsignificant. A reconsideration of the literature and an examination of the correlations between coping strategies suggested a different pattern of coping behaviours. The regressions were reanalysed using Escape-Avoidance and Accepting Responsibility (EAR coping) and Seeking Social Support and Planful Problem Solving (SPS coping). The equation predicting EAR coping reached significance (F(2,86)=20.2, p<.01). Homophobia and self-esteem entered the equation and accounted for 30% of the explained variance. The equation predicting SPS coping also achieved significance (F(3,85)=3.9, p<.05) with stressor type, homophobia and time since diagnosis entering and accounting for 9% of the total variance. A third regression equation predicting mood state also achieved significance (F(4,84)=22.4, p<.01). After removing the effects of time since diagnosis, which accounted for 4% of the total variance, EAR coping entered and explained 32% of the total variance. Homophobia and self-esteem entered after the coping variable, contributing 3% and 10%, respectively to the total variance after the other significant variables. The results help clarify the relationship between personal, environmental and contextual variables and the greater use of specific coping strategies in HIV+ gay men, as well as the relationship between coping strategies and mood state.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat