Influence of marital and educational status on clients' psychosocial adjustment to HIV/AIDS in Calabar, Nigeria

A comparative descriptive design and a stratified random sampling technique were adopted to study the influence of marital and educational status on the psychological, social, and spiritual adjustment of 280 respondents living with HIV/AIDS in two randomly selected clinics within Calabar, Nigeria. A 30 item questionnaire, with a content validity index of 0.92 and a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.94, was used for data collection, with due attention to ethical considerations. The findings showed that marital status had a significant influence on the respondents' psychological and social adjustment but not on their spiritual adjustment. Those that were married and those with higher educational qualifications had better psychological adjustment than those who had never married. The marital and educational status of clients should be considered when conducting education or counseling, making recommendations, or organizing support groups for living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, advocacy aimed at meeting the psychosocial needs of single and less-educated clients could enhance their psychosocial adjustment. © 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.