Intimacy, sex and sexuality : the experiences of vertically-infected HIV-positive adolescents

Abstract

This research explores the lived experience of being a vertically or prenatally-infected HIV-positive adolescent. It looks specifically at how the participants experience intimacy, sex and sexuality. HIV/AIDS remains a global pandemic and vertically-infected adolescents are a growing new demographic. However, there is a poverty of research, and therefore interventions and support, for this demographic. This qualitative research conducted six individual, in-depth, semi-structured, psychoanalytic research interviews with three participants. The interviews were structured around projective drawings that the participants did in the course of each interview. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using psychodynamic object relations theory and organised through interpretative phenomenological analysis. Every effort was made to ensure that the research was conducted ethically and validly. The analysis found that the participants' experience of intimacy has resulted in a self that is constantly under threat. This in turn has negatively impacted on the participants' experience of sex and sexuality. The implication of this research is that more in-depth research needs to be done into this demographic so that better interventions and support may be offered.