Association of dysfunctional coping influencing emotional-behavior problems among HIV-positive MSM in a Global South Center

Introduction: The prevalence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among men who have sex with men (MSM) has increased exponentially in Indonesia. This population is vulnerable to mental disorders due to biological and psychosocial factors. Multiple forms of coping mechanisms might be utilized to deal with these stressors. This study aimed to determine the relationship between coping mechanisms with emotional and behavior problems in HIV-positive MSM as well as the influence of clinical and social attributes including family factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey in the HIV Unit of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital was performed using the Symptom Checklist-90 to identify emotional and behavioral problems and the Brief Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Scale to determine types of coping mechanisms. Results: Of the 96 participants, 45.8% of them suffered from at least one emotional and behavior problems and the most common was depression (36.5%). Twelve of 15 participants with children did not have any emotional and behavior problems which translated into significantly reduced odds for emotional and behavior problems in bivariate analysis. Dysfunctional coping was found to have moderate to strong positive correlations with all domains of emotional and behavior problems. In multivariate analysis, duration of contracting HIV and dysfunctional coping also displayed augmented odds for developing overall emotional and behavior problems. Discussion or conclusion: The present research exhibited the influence of coping mechanism type to the risk of emotional and behavior problems among HIV-positive MSM. Additional research is required to understand the impact of heteronormative conforming and effective therapy to improve employment of adaptive coping.