ABSTRACT

HIV/AIDS was a disease which develops very rapidly among community, and
then HIV/AIDS began to infect among housewives. Other than having a
malfunctioned body and a fear of death, the housewives also had concern about their
children’s future. Besides housewives were also experiencing strong discrimination
and stigma from society, it causes them a high psychological distress and encourages
housewives to used coping strategies as an attempts to overcome their problems. This
study was aimed to describe coping strategies used by housewives who suffer from
HIV/AIDS as an effort to overcome the stressors which they are experienced.
This study used a descriptive quantitative approach where the populations are
housewives who suffer from HIV/AIDS in Bandung. Data were collected with
accidental sampling technique and obtained as many as 45 respondents. Instrument
for data collection was a sixty six item Ways of Coping (WOC) questionnaire from
Lazarus and Folkman (1998). The data was analyzed by means of frequency
distributive in the form of percentage.
Result from this study revealed that coping strategies used by respondents
were consisted of escape/avoidance as seventeen people (34%), self-controlling as
fourteen people (28%), positive reappraisal as six people (12%), distancing as five
people (10%), seeking social support as four people (8%), planful problem solving as
three people (6%), confrontative coping by one person (2%), and there were no one
who used accepting responsibility (0%). Each individual had its own way of dealing
with their stressor.
In this study coping strategies used by respondents were influence by factors
such as age that still in the level of young adults who has children and newly
diagnosed for one to three years long. Recommendation made include the needs for
support who can help respondents to be more receptive to their live and can live their
lives as comfortable as they can.
Key Word : coping strategies, housewives with HIV/AIDS, quantitative.

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