title: Impacts of making sense of adversity on depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and posttraumatic growth among a sample of mainly newly diagnosed HIV-positive Chinese young homosexual men: the mediating role of resilience.
abstract: The experience of HIV, as a life-transforming event, might produce both negative and positive outcomes. Guided by the stress appraisal model, the present study investigated the hypothesized pathways in predicting symptomatology and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a sample of Chinese male patients with HIV (PHIV) who were mainly newly diagnosed, young, and homosexual. In this cross-sectional study, 141 Chinese male PHIV (87.2% of them were homosexual) completed measures of making negative/positive sense of adversity, resilience, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and PTG. The path analysis results showed that making negative sense of adversity was associated with depression and PTSD, partially mediated by low levels of resilience, whereas making positive sense of adversity was associated with PTG, partially mediated by resilience. The results suggest that negative and positive outcomes of trauma are impacted by making negative and positive sense of adversity, respectively, via two separate pathways, both mediated by resilience. Our findings contribute to an understanding of the cognitive process of symptomatology and PTG in the HIV context. Theoretical considerations, clinical implications, and future directions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Applied Social Sciences , City University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Nancy Xiaonan
authors.initials: NX
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: b Institute of Developmental Psychology , Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: b Institute of Developmental Psychology , Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: c School of Public Health , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: b Institute of Developmental Psychology , Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China.|d School of Psychology , Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Danhua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D000067656:Optimism / Q000523:psychology; D000067657:Pessimism / Q000523:psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Making sense of adversity; depression; posttraumatic growth; posttraumatic stress disorder; resilience