Cognitive processing, discovery of meaning, CD4 decline, and AIDS-related mortality among bereaved HIV-seropositive men.

Bower, Julienne E., Kemeny, Margaret E., Taylor, Shelley E., Fahey, John L.·1998·Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
DOI 10.1037//0022-006x.66.6.979

Abstract

This study investigated whether finding meaning in response to an HIV-related stressor was associated with changes in immune status and health. Forty HIV-seropositive men who had recently experienced an AIDS-related bereavement completed interviews assessing cognitive processing and finding meaning after the loss and provided blood samples for a 2- to 3-year follow-up. AIDS-related mortality over an extended follow-up was determined from death certificates. As predicted, men who engaged in cognitive processing were more likely to find meaning from the loss. Furthermore, men who found meaning showed less rapid declines in CD4 T cell levels and lower rates of AIDS-related mortality (all ps < .05), independent of health status at baseline, health behaviors, and other potential confounds. These results suggest that positive responses to stressful events, specifically the discovery of meaning, may be linked to positive immunologic and health outcomes.

Cites (2)

  1. Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states
    Watson, David, Clark, Lee A. · 1984 · Psychological Bulletin
  2. Accelerating the coping process.
    Pennebaker, James W., Colder, Michelle, Sharp, Lisa K. · 1990 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Show all 2 references

Cited by (53)

  1. TARGET ARTICLE: "Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence"
    Tedeschi, Richard G., Calhoun, Lawrence G. · 2004 · Psychological Inquiry
  2. Coping: Pitfalls and promise
    Folkman, Susan, Moskowitz, Judith Tedlie · 2004 · Annual Review of Psychology
  3. Psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytic study of 30 Years of inquiry
    Segerstrom, Suzanne C., Miller, Gregory E. · 2004 · Psychological Bulletin
  4. Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events
    Park, Crystal L. · 2010 · Psychological Bulletin
  5. Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought
    Watkins, Edward R. · 2008 · Psychological Bulletin

See all 451

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Cognitive processing, discovery of meaning, CD4 decline, and AIDS-related mortality among bereaved HIV-seropositive men. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0022-006x.66.6.979
The paper
Bower, J. E., Kemeny, M. E., Taylor, S. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Cognitive processing, discovery of meaning, CD4 decline, and AIDS-related mortality among bereaved HIV-seropositive men. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-006x.66.6.979

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.