In general, an initial diagnosis of HIV is likely to be correlated with the onset of HIV stigma. HIV-positive individuals are likely to internalize stigma, may suffer from psychosocial issues, or engage in maladaptive behaviors to cope with the diagnosis. Internalized stigma stems from fear of stigmatization also known as felt stigma. The current study examined the impact of HIV felt stigma on overall health and success of HIV prevention behaviors among 370 participants living with HIV and receiving care at an urban HIV clinic in Kenya. An 18-item instrument was cross culturally adapted to measure felt stigma. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses examined the data. Findings indicate that 25.9% (n = 96) of participants who reported experiencing high levels of felt stigma related to other people's attitudes toward their condition, ostracizing, and a disruption of their personal life, were likely to not adhere to prescribed HIV medication and not disclose their HIV serostatus to one other person. Those who also experienced felt stigma related to a disruption of their personal lives while mediated by depression were likely to report poor overall health. Findings support having HIV clinics and interventions develop relevant HIV prevention strategies that focus on the emerging dimensions of felt stigma which can significantly impact disclosure of serostatus, medication adherence, and overall health.

Politicians, in talking about potential face-threatening acts or politically risky topics, avoid the obvious and communicate indirectly in order to protect and further their own careers and to gain both political and interactional advantage over their political opponents. The indirectness may also be motivated by politeness. This obliqueness in communication may be expressed through evasion, circumlocution, innuendoes, metaphors, etc. Language as well as varying social conventions of the relevant culture as well as differing degree of personal danger inherent in the sociopolitical situation in which politicians operate may also affect the degree of indirectness as well as the kind(s) of obliqueness employed.

No abstract

No abstract

This paper discusses the content and types of Akan death-prevention names. It provides a structural linguistic analysis of the morphology of these names and presents a socio-and ethnolingustic account of the deathprevention names as they function within Akan communication. The paper also classifies-the names according to their structures. Death-prevention names are shown to be meaningful and to refer to the lives of both their bearers and the name-givers.