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Stigma, Depression, and Substance Use Problems Among Perinatally HIV-Infected Youth in South Africa

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Abstract

A growing population of youth who acquired HIV from their mothers are surviving into adulthood. This group is unique in that they experience both internalized stigma (due to their HIV status) and associative stigma (due to their mothers’ HIV status). Results of a cross-sectional survey of 250 perinatally HIV-infected South African youth suggests that internalized stigma is associated with greater risk of depression, and associative stigma is associated with greater risk of depression and substance use problems. Interventions currently focus on internalized stigma; this study highlights the importance of also addressing associative stigma to improve outcomes among perinatally HIV-infected youth.

Resumen

Una población creciente de jóvenes que adquirió el VIH de sus madres está sobreviviendo a la edad adulta. Este grupo es único porque experimenta tanto el estigma internalizado (debido a su estado de VIH) como el estigma asociativo (debido al estado de VIH de su madre). Los resultados de una encuesta transversal de 250 jóvenes sudafricanos infectados por el VIH sugieren que el estigma internalizado se asocia con un mayor riesgo de depresión, y el estigma asociativo se asocia con un mayor riesgo de depresión y problemas de uso de sustancias. Las intervenciones actualmente se enfocan en el estigma internalizado; este estudio destaca la importancia de abordar también el estigma asociativo para mejorar los resultados entre los jóvenes infectados por el VIH en el período perinatal.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all of the study participants and the study team of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, especially Dr. Liberty, Wilma Pelser, Jacqueline Brown, Nkata Kekana, and Mirriam Kunene for their dedication to the study participants and their support of this study. The authors would also like to thank Ismael Medina for translating the abstract of this article into Spanish.

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NICHD, R21HD083032), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, K01DA042881, VAE), and the South African Medical Research Council. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the South African Medical Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Delaware, 111 Alison Hall West, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Valerie A. Earnshaw

  2. Program in Public Health and Department of Family, Population and Preventative Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Rachel C. Kidman

  3. Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Avy Violari

Authors
  1. Valerie A. Earnshaw
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  2. Rachel C. Kidman
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  3. Avy Violari
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valerie A. Earnshaw.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Earnshaw, V.A., Kidman, R.C. & Violari, A. Stigma, Depression, and Substance Use Problems Among Perinatally HIV-Infected Youth in South Africa. AIDS Behav 22, 3892–3896 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2201-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2201-7

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