COPING WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF TESTING HIV-POSITIVE

This study examined the relationship between the coping styles of moni toring and blunting, and emotional distress in individuals confronted with the possibility of being HIV infected. A sample of 200 men and 49 women undergoing an HIV antibody test were administered measures of e motional distress and asked to predict whether the result of their tes t would be positive or negative. All of these subjects subsequently te sted seronegative. In subjects who predicted the result of their HIV t est to be positive, those high or low on both monitoring and blunting experienced substantial emotional distress. However, subjects who used primarily either a monitoring or a blunting coping style and predicte d their HIV test result to be positive experienced a moderate level of distress. The results suggest that individuals who do not use a speci fic coping style, or attempt to use two conflicting coping styles at o nce may cope ineffectively and feel more emotional distress when confr onted with a health threat. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.