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Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
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Social Activism, Self-Advocacy, and Coping with Hiv Illness

Dale E. Brashers

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, dbrasher{at}uiuc.edu

Stephen M. Haas

University of Cincinnati

Judith L. Neidig

The Ohio State University

Lance S. Rintamaki

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Activist organizations are a relatively unique collective setting for people living with an HIV infection or AIDS. Communication within these organizations includes educational and motivational practices designed to facilitate change for the group and for its individual members. In this study, we examined differences between activist and nonactivist individuals (N = 174) with HIV or AIDS. Results demonstrated that, in comparison with nonactivists, activists (i) used more problem-focused coping and less emotion-focused coping, (ii) had greater knowledge of HIV-treatment information sources, and (iii) had greater HIV social network integration. We speculate that there are two reasons for these differences: (i) there are behavioral and psychological predisposing factors that lead to membership in an activist group, and (ii) the educational and motivational environments established through the relationships of activist group members (i.e., the social tasks of the collective) lead to changes in individuals.

Key Words: activism • coping • HIV • information seeking • information sources • self-advocacy

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 19, No. 1, 113-133 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407502191006
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