Gary W. Harper 1,2 , Elizabeth Ngugi 3 , Andrew J. Riplinger 2 , Anne W.
Gikuni 3 , Diana Lemos 1,4 , Sybil G. Hosek 4 , & Kylon Hooks 1
1 Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA
2 Master of Public Health (MPH) Program, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA
3 Centre for HIV Prevention and Research, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
4 Department of Psychiatry, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL USA

• Rates of HIV are increasing among youth in Kenya.
• Research regarding how these youth have coped with their diagnosis and remained resilient is critical to the development of interventions that promote their health and well-being.
• The purpose of this study was to explore resilience among urban youth newly diagnosed with HIV living in a slum region of Nairobi, Kenya.
• Resilience is being conceptualized as a dynamic process of positive adaptation within the context of adversity.

Methods
• Six (6) gender-specific focus groups.
• Questions focused on sources of support & resiliency following HIV diagnosis (Disability-Stress-Coping Model).
• Focus groups were conducted in English & Kiswahili.
Participants
• Urban Kenyan youth (n=53; 26 female, 27 male)
• Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS within the last 2 years
• Ages 18-25 (mean = 22.8)
• 37.7% married, 62.3% single
• Luo (45.3%); Luhya (17.0%); Kamba (15.1%); Nubian
(7.6%); Kikuyu (5.7%); Kisii (5.7%); Mumeru (1.9%);
Teso (1.9%).

•
Participants were recruited using snowball sampling in 10 of the
13 villages in the Kibera informal settlement (slum) in Nairobi.

• Focus groups were transcribed by the University of
Nairobi staff who facilitated them.
• Qualitative data analysis utilized a phenomenological framework.
• Data were analyzed first separately by the Kenya and
USA-based teams of analysts, and then collaboratively during in-country meetings.
• Thematic analysis revealed 7 Active Coping
Strategies & 7 Primary Sources of Social Support .

• Accepting a new HIV+ identity
• Disclosing HIV+ status to supportive others
• Engaging in holistic self-care
• Participating in formal support and health promotion programs
• Advocating for other HIV+ individuals
• Finding HIV+ role models
• Re-engaging with friends for social activities

• Romantic partners
• Friends
• Healthcare workers / counselors
• People living with HIV
• Co-workers/employers
• Religious colleagues
• Affirming HIV+ media figures

• These data demonstrate that Kenyan youth who are newly diagnosed with HIV demonstrate resilience across multiple dimensions.
• Intrapersonal-level resilience related to individual cognitions and behaviors
• Interpersonal-level resilience related to both seeking support and providing support to others.

• Future interventions should work to enhance youths’ coping and social support through creative strategies that develop and maintain resilience at both levels:
• intrapersonal resilience through individual-level cognitive and behavioral coping strategies
• interpersonal resilience through accessing and providing social support and mentoring/activism.

I was taken to counselors who gave me advice and from then I started viewing life in a different way. I started taking the drugs; gained my health; I accepted myself; I felt I was like any other child and
I accepted myself the way I was.
-Female
Your attitude towards this condition matters so much. If you think it will kill you then it will kill you, you know AIDS is not a curse. It’s a disease you can decide either you fight it or else it will ground you. So your attitude towards your condition can take you places.
-Male

• This study was funded by the Vincentian Endowment Fund (VEF) of DePaul
University’s Office of Mission and Values.
• We would like to thank the following:
• The participants who shared their stories with us.
• University of Nairobi’s Centre for HIV Prevention and Research staff who conducted and transcribed the focus groups.
• DePaul University & Stroger Hospital of Cook County Research Teams.