Hays, Turner & Coates (1992)

Aim

To examine the impact if social support and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) related conditions on depression in gay males.

Method

508 gay men (25- 54 years old) participating in the San Francisco Men’s Health Study.

Participants were interviewed and examined, interviews lasting approx 1 hour, focused on sexual behaviour, physical symptoms, health related behaviour and psychoscocial variables. Physical assessment for HIV symptoms & health. Follow up assessments every 6 moths with all measures repeated. Additionally a self administered questionaire assessing psychosocial factors: stress, social support, coping, and assessed for depression.

Findings

Neither HIV or knowledge of ones status significantly impacted depression.

HIV symptoms was associated with greater depression

Participants who were more satisfied with their social support were less likely to show increased depression a year later

satisfaction with informational support with buffering depression with experiencing HIV symptoms.

Use

Supports Brown and Harris’ Vulnerability Model in that men with social and informational support were less likely to experience depression when managing stress related HIV symptoms. This supports the idea that individuals with more protective factors are less at risk of developing depression. The study also found that gay men diagnosed with HIV were more likely to exhibit depression as they were rejected by family members, lacking social support and protective factors.

Strengths

Self administered questionnaire for psychosocial factors allowed for quantitative measures of support, stress & depression

Longitudinal - allows for investigation of changes and effect of changes in health, support, and depression

Limitations

Study looked at gay men in San Francisco, therefore the sample is limited as it doesn’t consider other genders, sexualities, or cultural backgrounds.

It’s a correlational study, therefore no conclusions can be drawn about the causation of MDD and relationship between social support and HIV related conditions on depression in gay males.