Internalized HIV Stigma and Mindfulness: Associations With PTSD Symptom Severity in Trauma-Exposed Adults With HIV/AIDS
Abstract
Rates of both traumatic event exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; 22%-54%) are disproportionately elevated among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). Trauma and related psychopathology significantly affect quality of life and disease management in this patient population. The current study examined associations between internalized HIV stigma, mindfulness skills, and the severity of PTSD symptoms in trauma-exposed PLHA. Participants included 137 PLHA (14.6% female; Mage = 48.94, SD = 8.89) who reported experiencing on average, five (SD = 2.67) traumatic events; 34% met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Results indicate that after controlling for sex, age, education, and number of traumatic events, internalized HIV stigma was positively related to overall PTSD symptom severity (β = .16, p < .05) and severity of re-experiencing (β = .19, p < .05) and hyper-arousal (β = .16, p = .05), but not avoidance, PTSD symptom clusters. Among the mindfulness facets measured, acting with awareness was uniquely negatively related to the overall severity of PTSD symptoms (β = -.25, p < .01) and the severity of re-experiencing (β = -.25, p < .05), avoidance (β = -.25, p < .05), and hyper-arousal (β = -.29, p < .01) PTSD symptom clusters. These effects were observed after accounting for covariates and shared variance with other mindfulness facets. Theoretically, the present findings suggest that internalized HIV stigma may serve as a vulnerability factor for the severity of certain PTS…
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Gonzalez et al. (2016) found that mindfulness (acting with awareness) was weakly associated with lower levels of PTSD symptoms (β = -0.25, p < 0.01) among traumatised adults living with HIV in the USA.
“Mindfulness (acting with awareness) was weakly associated with lower levels of PTSD symptoms ( β = -0.25, p < 0.01) among traumatised adults living with HIV in the USA (Gonzalez et al., 2016).”
From Resilience resources for mental health among people living with HIV: a mixed-method systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as Gonzalez et al., 2016
Cites
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- Authors
- Gonzalez, A., Locicero, B., Mahaffey, B., Fleming, C., Harris, J., & Vujanovic, A. A.
- Affiliations
- Stony Brook University (US)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gonzalez, Adam
- Venue
- Behavior Modification
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-11-19
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 144-163
- ISSN
- 0145-4455 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-4167
- OpenAlex
- W2172731024
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 5.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavior Modification (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Vermont
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- Keywords
- internalized HIV stigma, mindfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, people living with HIV, trauma exposure, PTSD symptom severity, re-experiencing, hyperarousal, avoidance, acting with awareness, resilience, vulnerability factors
- MeSH terms
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Adult, Aged, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Severity of Illness Index, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Wounds and Injuries, HIV Infections, Social Stigma, Mindfulness
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