This study was designed as the qualitative arm of a larger quantitative study (N = 156) of the relationships among social role quality, physical health, and psychological well-being of women living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A subset of 20 midlife and late-life women from this larger sample participated in semistructured interviews with the specific aims of investigating how fulfilling they found social roles to be, including their spouse, mother, worker, and homemaker roles, while contending with RA, and what circumstances made social role experiences more positive. The results of the current followup qualitative study illustrate how difficult it can be to fulfill social roles during exacerbations of the illness in their formative adult years. The circumstance that best facilitated their positive experience in social roles was the unburdening of social role obligations as they grew older. Implications for nursing practice are discussed.

The purpose of this report is to describe the ways older women living with HIV perceive of and practice self-care. Data are taken from a culturally diverse subsample of 9 women age 50 years or older who participated in a larger longitudinal qualitative study of women who were HIV infected. During a period of 2 years, 10 semistructured narrative interviews were conducted with each of the 9 participants to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences with symptom management, adherence to medical regimens, reduction of HIV risk, access to health care and social services, and personal efforts to maintain their health. Transcribed data were managed using Nvivo software and analyzed using multistaged narrative analysis. Findings suggest that mature women living with HIV integrate actions to maintain bodily comfort and improve physical well-being with actions that champion and conserve the existential self. Excerpts from their interviews illustrate this dialectical understanding of self-care.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating and moderating effects of women's social role quality on the psychological well-being of women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One hundred and fifty-six women with a diagnosis of RA (M age = 59, SD = 11) completed self-report measures of arthritis history, physical health, psychological well-being, and role quality. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that role quality mediated the effects of physical health on depression and purpose in life, moderated the effects of health on depression, and moderated the effects of pain on purpose in life. Women in poor health with high role quality were significantly less depressed than women in poor health with poor role quality. Women with high levels of pain and high role quality had more purpose in life than women with high levels of pain and low role quality. Despite difficulties with their physical health, women who had high role quality had higher levels of psychological well-being. Findings from this study may aid in the development of meaningful interventions to help women with RA manage their daily lives to optimize well-being.