Stigma never dies: Mourning a spouse who died of AIDS in China

Nancy Xiaonan Yu; Amy Y M Chow; Cecilia L W Chan; Jianxin Zhang; Sunita M Stewart

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.034

Stigma never dies: Mourning a spouse who died of AIDS in China

Psychiatry Res. 2015 Dec 30;230(3):968-70. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.034. Epub 2015 Oct 30.

Authors

Nancy Xiaonan Yu¹, Amy Y M Chow², Cecilia L W Chan³, Jianxin Zhang⁴, Sunita M Stewart⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Electronic address: nancy.yu@cityu.edu.hk.
² Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
³ Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Center on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

PMID: 26553145
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.034

Abstract

Stigma towards people with HIV (PHIV) can affect their family members. In this study of 68 HIV seronegative participants in China whose spouse died of AIDS, 35.3% reported prolonged grief. Stigma beliefs towards PHIV (i.e., belief that PHIV's death leaves the deceased, the family and society better off) predicted grief symptoms. Social campaigns to combat stigma and grief therapy to reconstruct the meaning of HIV-related death may be helpful to reduce suffering in HIV bereaved.

Keywords: Bereavement; Prolonged grief; Stigma.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
Adult
Bereavement*
China
Cross-Sectional Studies
Death*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Social Stigma*
Spouses / psychology*
Suicide