THE SOCIAL NETWORK OF FAMILIES OF HIV-INFECTED PERSONS

This paper is focused at the social network of families of HIV-infected persons. 13 families were interviewed in a depth-psychological oriented semi-structured manner. The evaluation took place primarily according to a qualitative manner. The central result is that families with HIV-infected members inform more seldom other persons out of the informal social network in comparison to former coping tasks like haemophilia, dependence of drugs or homosexuality, events which happened before the HIV-infection. Accordingly to that only some single persons or whole families use informal help for their coping process with HIV-infection. The infected themselves claim more often professional psychosocial help, sometimes some relatives do it, seldom the whole family. We mostly find the familial tendency of social retreat and of coping with the burdens without help from the outside. This tendency is forced by distrust, social anxieties and projective separation of familial conflicts in order to maintain familial stability.