Abstract

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to theorize about how spirituality may or may not impact HIV positive adolescents and emerging adults, explain how spirituality may or may not influence their treatment, health and mental health outcomes and quality of life for adolescent and emerging adults with HIV, and explore expectations that HIV positive adolescents and emerging adults have for clinicians to address their spiritual needs after diagnosis of a life-altering disease such as HIV. Data were collected from 21 HIV positive adolescents and emerging adult males via individual interviews with three second interviews for a total of 24 interviews. Participants were racially and ethnically diverse with seven of Hispanic descent, six of African American descent, five were Caucasian and three identified as Bi-racial. All were gay with the exception of one perinatally infected young man. Through their experiences living with HIV and prior experiences with organized religion, participants shared their perspectives of how their spiritual beliefs assisted with coping with their diagnosis of HIV as well as decreasing depressive symptomatology and increasing medication adherence. Several common themes were found throughout the interviews and were instrumental in generating a grounded theory: “reconnecting to spirituality as a means of coping with HIV.” Participants reported having to re-embrace and re-engage in their earlier held spiritual beliefs and practices as well as to hold on to hope, believe in and claim normalcy and commit to beliefs and practices despite rejection from the church to move them along in this process of reconnecting. Most participants admitted to attending and participating in organized religion in youth but are no longer active participants in an organized religious organization due to stigma from the church regarding their sexual orientation and assumed HIV status. Nevertheless, spirituality continues to play an important role in these adolescent and emerging adults’ lives. Understanding the role of spirituality in HIV-infected adolescents and emerging adults may provide new insights on how clinicians may address these potentially unmet needs. Future research should be done to understand the role of spirituality in HIV-infected females and younger teens.