Stress, social support and health locus of control as predictors of psychological distress in HIV-infected women

Background: Studies have shown factors such as stress, social support and health locus of control (HLOC) influence psychological distress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of stress, social support and HLOC on psychological distress among HIV-positive minority women.

Methods: Fifty-eight HIV-positive, minority (81% African-American, 12% Hispanic) women who successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program were recruited for a longitudinal study at two major universities in south Florida. The present study used multiple linear regression for cross-sectional analysis of baseline data to determine model fit and independent effects of predictor variables. The goal was to examine the relationship between predictors and the continuous outcome variable psychological distress, indicated by the Global Severity Index score on the Brief Symptom Inventory.

Results: The overall model was significant at p < .001 (R2 = .343). Stress and ‘powerful others' HLOC were both statistically and positively associated with psychological distress (p < .01; p < .05). Social support, internal HLOC and chance HLOC were not significant.

Conclusions: This study replicated findings that stress affects psychological distress for HIV-positive individuals. ‘Powerful others' HLOC is a belief that health status is influenced by the behavior of external, powerful individuals (e.g. medical professionals). Previous studies have shown an association between external HLOC and worse health outcomes in the face of disease. The importance of medical professionals for HIV-positive individuals makes the ‘powerful others' finding particularly salient. Finally, this study documents the relationship of HLOC to distress in a more diverse population than prior research.