ILLNESS-RELATED SUPPORT AND NEGATIVE NETWORK INTERACTIONS - EFFECTS ON HIV-INFECTED MENS DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY

Data collected as part of a psychosocial study of gay and bisexual men 's experiences of living with HIV infection as a chronic illness were examined to investigate the psychological impact of the perceived avai lability of illness-related support and negative illness-related netwo rk interactions in a sample of men from this population. The sample wa s comprised of 144 HIV-infected non-Hispanic white, African American, and Puerto Rican men living in the New York City metropolitan area. An alyses found evidence of a conjoint (interactive) effect between perce ived support and negative network interactions. There was no evidence of either perceived availability of illness-related network support bu ffering or negative illness-related network interactions amplifying th e effect of HIV/AIDS-related physical symptomatology on depressive sym ptomatology.