The Relationship Between Positive Psychological Attributes and Psychological Well-Being in Persons with HIV/AIDS

The relationship between personal psychological attributes and psychological well-being was assessed among adults with HIV/AIDS. The predictive power of sense of coherence, dispositional optimism and perceived competence (PC) on positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA) and relative mood (PA–NA) were assessed using hierarchical linear regression analysis of two data collections, 2 months apart, from 124 HIV-infected participants. In cross-sectional models all of the baseline psychological attributes accounted for a significant amount of variance in the well-being measures. In longitudinal analyses, changes in PA were predicted by PC and dispositional optimism but not by sense of coherence. The positive psychological attributes did not predict changes in NA. Sense of coherence, dispositional optimism and PC, individually and in composite form, significantly correlate with psychological well-being among HIV infected persons. However, change in psychological well-being might be best predicted by PC.