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Living Optimally with HIV: Youth Experience in a Metropolitan Canadian City

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Children and Young People Living with HIV/AIDS

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Research in Health, Illness and Well-Being ((CCRHIWB))

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Abstract

In this chapter, we describe the experiences of a sample of HIV-positive youth whose intact adolescent identities contrast sharply with the expected identity challenges of persons living with serious, chronic disease. Our purpose is, first, to showcase this novel positive conceptualization of chronic illness identity emerging from the successful management of ‘healthy’ diseased bodies; and second, to describe the social structural context supporting these adolescents’ successes. The availability of positive HIV-positive role models, and highly supportive formal health and social care for these youth aligned with uncharacteristically high levels of adherence to antiretroviral regimes, highly positive health-self assessments, and accounts of ‘normal lives’ described by most in our study group. These youth showed a cautious optimism about the future – in the context of the negotiation of intimacy and sexuality – related to disclosure of their private HIV-positive identities and their embodied HIV-positive status.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, 144 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3M2, Canada

    Michelle Di Risio & Peri J. Ballantyne

  2. Department of Sociology, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada

    Peri J. Ballantyne

  3. Division of Infectious Diseases, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada

    Stanley Read

Authors
  1. Michelle Di Risio
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  2. Peri J. Ballantyne
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  3. Stanley Read
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle Di Risio .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science and Health, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Pranee Liamputtong

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Di Risio, M., Ballantyne, P.J., Read, S. (2016). Living Optimally with HIV: Youth Experience in a Metropolitan Canadian City. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Children and Young People Living with HIV/AIDS. Cross-Cultural Research in Health, Illness and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29936-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29936-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29934-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29936-5

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