Psychosocial vulnerability to stress: a study of HIV-positive homosexual men

Sixty-one homosexual men with HIV infection participated in a 12-month investigation into the role of stressful life events and mediating variables in the stress process. The results revealed that frequency of stressful life events and psychosocial resilience (a factor indexing levels of support, worry, personal self-esteem, and effective coping efforts) significantly predicted levels of emotional distress in this sample. The combined influence of these variables accounted for 53% (Phase 2) and 55% (Phase 3) of the variance in levels of emotional distress. The data point to a need to incorporate measures of life event frequency and several, rather than single, mediating variables in studies investigating the stress process.