ongoing
Dyadic support exchange, affective well-being and HIV/AIDS stigma: A daily diary study of intimate couples of people living with HIV
principal investigator / project leader
Ph.D. / Associate Professor
project value: PLN 995,361
SWPS University’s budget: PLN 418,911
funding source: National Science Center
discipline: psychology
location: Warsaw
duration: 2024 2025 2026 2027
Researchers from SWPS University and the University of Warsaw will examine the links between subjectively-evaluated daily social support, affective well-being, and daily experience of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in couples affected by HIV.
Grant form the National Science Center No. 2023/51/B/HS6/00332
Project objectives
Stigmatization related to HIV/AIDS is considered a major source of individual psychological distress and low well-being, but also from a global perspective, it is considered a key barrier to effectively combating the HIV epidemic worldwide. Struggling with chronic illness poses high psychological distress not only for the patients but also for their close ones who often play the role of informal caregivers. In such a situation, the mutual exchange of social support plays a key role in the functioning of both people. However, research on everyday receiving and providing support in intimate relationships during illness is still rare. Providing support on a daily basis may be particularly important for patients because it may increase their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem despite the disease, which is consistent with the general theory of social support enhancing self-esteem.
The main goal of this project is to examine the links between subjectively-evaluated daily social support, both provided and received, affective well-being, and daily experience of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in relationships affected by HIV.
Dyadic research is becoming one of the key paradigms in health psychology, as it allows for the examination of the perspectives of both individuals within a couple. In the intimate relationships of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH), the daily challenges include not only coping with a chronic illness, but also facing potential stigmatizing reactions from others. Mutual exchange of support can therefore be one of the key dynamics for the psychological well-being of both the person living with HIV/AIDS and their partner.
Gruszczyńska, Ewa
Principal Investigator
Role in the Faculty
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Role in the Department
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Role in the Institute
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Specialization
psychologist
First and last name
Ewa Gruszczyńska
Academic degree or title
Ph.D. / Associate Professor
Email
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Position
profesor uczelni
Role in the university
Vice-Rector for International Affairs
Role in the Research Center
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Ph.D. / Associate Professor Ewa Gruszczyńskapsychologist
Methodology
To examine the mechanisms of social support exchange on fluctuations in daily affect and daily stigmatization we plan to use innovative psychological measurement, namely dyadic intensive longitudinal measurement. Daily online measurements will include assessments of social support, stigma, and affective well-being for both partners forming the dyad, irrespective of their serodiscordant (one partner lives with HIV) or seroconcordant status (both partners live with HIV). In total, the online diary will take less than 7 minutes to complete and will run for 3 weeks, with participants in each dyad completing online, time-stamped questionnaires sent to their mobile phones or email boxes every evening.
Research Team
Rzeszutek, Marcin Tomasz
Specialization
psychologist, psychotherapist
First and last name
Marcin Tomasz Rzeszutek
Academic degree or title
Ph.D. / Associate Professor, University of Warsaw
Ph.D. / Associate Professor, University of Warsaw Marcin Tomasz Rzeszutekpsychologist, psychotherapist
Practical application of results
The potential benefits resulted from this research project are of not only epistemological, but also practical nature.
- Our review of existing literature indicates that our study will be the first to examine social support exchange, affective well-being and HIV/AIDS stigma in the daily dyadic research design.
- Our project is founded on a solid theoretical foundation, and as such, may provide new knowledge in health and clinical psychology on the mechanisms of social support exchange in chronic illness.
- We plan to co-operate with the non-governmental organization in Poland helping PLWH.
- It is intended that the findings will also have applications in clinical counseling.
Furthermore, this is our most recent project in this thematic area, carried out under the cooperation agreement between the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Warsaw and the Institute of Psychology at SWPS University. Our goal is, as with the previous projects, to contribute to establishing the leading position of both institutions in the field of psychology through high-quality scientific publications.