(PS6-B29) Years Since HIV Diagnosis Predicts Religious Coping Among Black Women in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction. Among Black women living with HIV (BWLWH), religious coping is a frequently used and effective coping strategy that helps to cope with daily stressors and adverse life events such as trauma, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, poverty, and lack of access to care. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest a change in spirituality and general coping after a diagnosis of chronic health conditions such as cancer and HIV. This suggests that there may be a cognitive and emotional transition at the time of diagnosis that may uniquely impact the process and type of coping that BWLWH choose to use. The current study aimed to examine a) the predictive effect of years since diagnosis on religious coping and b) changes in religious coping across an approximate two-year span during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method. One hundred and fifty-one BWLWH in the Southeastern United States provided baseline and follow up data at three-month intervals during ten study visits. Measures captured years since HIV diagnosis and examined constructs including religious coping. Results. Simple linear regressions showed that higher number of years since HIV diagnosis significantly predicted higher religious coping, F (1, 1176) = 3.889, p < .05. Fixed effects linear regressions for repeated measures, controlling for age and education, showed that time significantly predicted religious coping, R² = .418, F (150, 1014) = 4.845, p < .05, and accounted for 41.8% of the variation in religious coping. Additionally, an assessment of mean differences across study visits showed that mean religious coping at baseline was significantly lower (occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic from October 2019 to January 2020) in comparison to subsequent visits (visits 4, 5 and 9) occurring during the peak period of the pandemic [August 2020 and January 2022]. Discussion. These findings indicate the importance of temporal factors in the use of religious coping among BWLWH and suggest that compared to the pre-pandemic period BWLWH increased their use of religious coping to cope with the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, women who had been living with HIV for a greater number of years may have solidified spirituality as a core coping strategy which they tapped into in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings may provide a nuanced understanding of how coping changes over time and in the context of the pandemic as well as inform future interventions for BWLWH.