Longitudinal Effects of Coping on Outcome in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Group Intervention for HIV-Positive Adults with AIDS-Related Bereavement

Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal effects of coping on outcome one year following completion of a randomized, controlled trial of a group coping intervention for AIDS-related bereavement. Bereaved HIV-positive participants (N = 267) were administered measures of grief, psychiatric distress, quality of life, and coping at baseline, post-intervention, and at 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-ups. Coping strategies directly impacted all outcome variables for both study conditions. Additionally, the coping intervention moderated the relationship between avoidant coping and the longitudinal course of grief and psychiatric distress, resulting in greater reductions in grief and distress for intervention participants after accounting for avoidant coping strategies.

This research was supported by grants R01-MH54958 and R01-MH62965 (awarded to Kathleen J. Sikkema, Ph.D.), P30-MH62294 (Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, CIRA, awarded to Michael H. Merson, M.D.), T32-MH014235 (awarded to Heping Zhang and supporting Musie Ghebremichael) from the National Institute of Mental Health, and K02-DA017713 and R01-DA076750-02 (awarded to Heping Zhang) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors gratefully acknowledge our community collaborations with the AIDS Resources Center for Wisconsin, the Madison AIDS Support Network, and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City.

Notes

^a Reported value is for sample median.

^b Logarithmic transformation was used due to skewed distributions for loss data.