Men's Health Solutions BLOG

Reflecting the diverse composition of personal relationship study, readers in numerous disciplines—social psychology, communication, sociology, family studies, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, personality, counseling, women’s studies, gerontology, and others — will find valuable and insightful perspectives at this website.

Apart from the academic scholars who research the dynamics and processes of relationships, there are many other people whose work involves them in the operation of relationships in the real world. For such people as nurses, police, teachers, therapists, lawyers, drug and alcohol counselors, marital counselors, and those who take care of the elderly, a number of issues routinely arise concerning the ways in which relationships affect the people whom they serve. Examples of these are: the role of loneliness in illness and the ways to circumvent it; the complex impact of family and peer relationships on a drug-dependent person’s attempts to give up the drug; the role of playground unpopularity on a child’s learning; the issues involved in dealing with the relational side of chronic illness; the management of conflict in marriage; the establishment of good rapport between physicians and seriously ill patients; the support of the bereaved; and the correction of violent styles of behavior in dating or marriage. Each of these is a problem that may confront some of these professionals as part of their daily concerns and each demonstrates the far-reaching influences of relationship processes in one’s life that is presently theorized independently of relationship considerations.

HIV and AIDS are global troubles and symptoms that affect us all — not only socially, but culturally, economically, medically, politically, interpersonally, and personally. Many individuals perceive themselves as removed from or immune to HIV and/or AIDS. In some form or another, however, one will be touched and affected by HIV and/ or AIDS. The announcement in July of 2004 that the world is losing the fight against HIV infection is sobering—38 million people infected, nd 4.8 million new cases expected in 2004 with 3 million persons dying of ARC. The issues of education and prevention have become more important, now more than ever.

Many existing studies on HIV and AIDS approach the phenomenon from a medical standpoint or a largely social standpoint. We applaud these efforts and encourage further works in these domains to increase awareness and understanding of HIV and AIDS. We noticed, however, that much of the extant research was remiss in terms of approaching HIV and AIDS from an interpersonal/personal perspective. Being communication scholars, we were surprised to learn that, although discussions regarding sexual histories, sexual practices, safer sex behavior, and condom use are interpersonal communication phenomena, little existed in the extant literature on the tremendous role that communication has in the discussion and practice of safer sex. Similarly, we noticed that much of the existing research focused heavily on homosexuals or men having sex with men (MSM) and paid less attention to relationship types that also carried potential risk. For example, relationships involving aged or married partners, or with cultural or intercultural components, remain understudied in the literature, but are no less important. Our purpose in writing this article is to approach HIV and AIDS in a variety of close relationship types from an interpersonal, communication perspective. In a phrase, HIV and AIDS touch and affect us all in some aspect or another.

Although the material covered in this text is applicable to all of us in some form or another, the voice of the article is geared to graduate students and upper-division undergraduates who are interested in interpersonal and health-related aspects of close relationships. The article is fitting for individuals interested in interpersonal, social, and health related issues working in a variety of disciplinary areas such as communication, sociology, psychology, social psychology, women’s studies, and public health.

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