How you can participate...
The decision to disclose one's serostatus to family members can create considerable strain for people living with HIV (PLWH). Current research has also demonstrated that disclosure, particularly to nuclear family members, may serve to improve mental health, increase social support, and lessen intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors. Our work, however, has pointed to a different aspect of communication that might be critical to the understanding of PLWH disclosure. We propose that making a decision to disclose or not, being comfortable with the decision, and feeling confident about making good disclosure decisions may be as important as actually disclosing.
We are recruiting HIV-positive gay, bisexual, or straight men and women, who are 18 years old or older, currently sexually active, have not told at least one family member of their HIV status, and are willing to participate in 5 project sessions and 2 additional assessment sessions over a one year-period. Each session is expected to last approximately 2 hours, and participants could earn a total of $260. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a disclosure program or a comparable risk reduction program.