SUBJECTIVE HIV ATTRIBUTION THEORIES, COPING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING AMONG HOMOSEXUAL MEN WITH HIV

Facing a traumatic event, such as being diagnosed with HIV, the indivi dual tries to find an explanation why the traumatic event happened. On e way to answer that question is through attributions. The purpose of this study was to examine subjective attribution theories for HIV (int ernal/self-blame, external/blaming others, and fatalistic) and their a ssociation with coping styles and psychological functioning among 57 s elf-defined gay men who were HIV-positive. None of the respondents wer e diagnosed with AIDS. Although all men made attributions for their HI V infection, few had incorporated exclusively self-blame and external attributions, respectively. About one-third of the gay men attributed HIV to both self-blame and external factors. Self-blame attribution wa s associated with the avoidant coping style. Analyses yielded that bot h self-blame attribution and the avoidant coping style correlated with depressive mood and life dissatisfaction. External attribution theory displayed a positive relation to depressive mood. No particular HIV a ttribution theory was tried to good psychological functioning. The cli nical implications of these results are discussed.