A phenomenological inquiry into the lived experience of social support for Black South African women living with HIV

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The HIV/AIDS pandemic is steadily growing throughout the world. Globalestimates have revealed that forty million people are living with HIV/AIDS.Approximately 5.3 millions South Africans have been indicated to be living withthe illness and within South Africa HIV/AIDS is having catastrophic effect. Theburden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has not fallen evenly. In South Africa, Africanwomen have borne the brunt of the illness. This study presents a focus ondeveloping more effective ways of caring and therefore impacting the health ofBlack South African women living with HIV.Social support understood broadly as different aspects of relationships in whichneeds are met and individuals feel cared for, loved and valued (Cobb, cited inFriedland, McColl, & Renwick, 1996) was indicated as having a powerful impacton health. For this reason social support was considered crucial in thedevelopment of effective strategies of care.Studies examining the role of social support in the management of chronic illnesssuch as HIV/AIDS underscore the ability of social support to provide a sense ofhealth within illness. From within a South African context, however, a gap insocial support research has been apparent. Although frameworks forunderstanding social support as a broad concept were available, social supportresearch failed to provide adequate foundations for understanding socialsupport in terms that could implicate strategic intervention and contribute to thedevelopment of more effective strategies of care.The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the livedexperience of social support for a sample of nine Black South African womenliving with HIV. The study was conducted qualitatively within aphenomenological paradigm. A phenomenological paradigm encouraged participants, through in-depth interviewing, to provide information based ontheir own lived experiences of social support. The interviews were thentranscribed and analysed using rigorous data analysis methods. Initial findingswere presented to the sample and then developed further. Final findings werewritten up as rich descriptions of the lived experience of social support for thesample.Fourteen themes emerged as comprising constituent aspects of social support.Descriptions of the fourteen themes, including health care professionals,partners, family/children, support groups, meeting others needs, story telling,Memory Box Project, media and books, organisations within the community,activities, the community, being involved in research and spirituality, providerich understandings of the interpersonal relationships constituting the livedexperience of social support for the sample. A polarity was identified in the livedexperience of social support. Interactions had the potential to be satisfactory andsupportive as well as non-supportive. The research findings are discussedwithin a greater theoretical body of knowledge and considered in light of threecontexts considered influential in impacting the lived experience of socialsupport.The study assisted in the development of a culturally contextual understandingof the lived experience of social support. This understanding has implications foreffective intervention strategies seeking to purposefully care for those living withHIV in South Africa

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University