Social support and psychological stability of HIV/AIDS patients: Result of a meta-analytic study

An explorative meta-analytic study analysed all published empirical studies on social support of HIV/AIDS patients (n=57 studies with 347 data sets). Empirical and conceptual questions are addressed. The focus of the empirical questions is to identify meta-analytically confirmed correlates of social support. The conceptual question aims at differentiating the large-scale construct "social support". Results indicate that social support 1. is independent of objective physical parameters, 2. is positively correlated with approach coping and negatively with avoidance coping, 3. shows a substantial negative correlation with indicators of psychological distress, 4. is positively correlated with condom use. The conceptual analysis shows that 5. there is no consensus on how to operationalise the construct of "social support".