HIV Infection in Inner-City African American Women: The Role of Optimism in Predicting Depressive Symptomatology

This study examined the role of optimism in longitudinally predicting depressive symptomatology. Participants were 160 inner-city African American women, 96 who reported no history of HIV infection and 64 who reported current HIV infection. HIV-infected women, relative to the women without a history of HIV infection, were less optimistic and had higher levels of depressive symptomatology based on both self-report and interviewer rating. Consistent with the proposed hypothesis, a curvilinear relationship emerged between optimism at Time 1 and depressive symptomatology at Time 2 in both samples. However, the shape of the curve differed substantially for the two samples. As predicted, therewas a U-shaped curve for the noninfected women; however, for the HIV-infected women the curve had an inverted U-shape. We discuss these findings in lightof previous conceptualizations of optimism and psychological functioning, the contextual environment in which the participating women live, unique contributions of HIV to the optimism–depressive symptomatology, and the implicationsfor infected women.