Linking hope factors, barriers to employment and health outcomes for individuals living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Background: Employment and hope have been correlated with improved health outcomes in individuals with disabilities. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship among barriers to employment and hope theory factors and whether those factors mediate between barriers to employment and health outcomes in individuals living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Methods: The sample from this study consisted of 1,702 participants who completed the National Working Positive Vocational Development and Employment Needs Survey NWPC-VDENS and identified as unemployed. Astructural equation model was used to assess relationship among functioning level, past adversity, vocational goal setting, pathway thinking, agentic thinking, mental health, general health perception, and T-Cell counts. Results: Overall, the fit of the final structural equation model was good (RMSEA = 0.055, TLI = 0.924, CFI = 0.945). In this model, all the paths were significant below 0.001 of p-value except the path from agency to T-cell count, which was also significant below 0.05 of p-value. Conclusions: Goal setting showed high direct effect on agentic thinking and pathway thinking. Functioning level and past adversity impacted pathway thinking and goal setting while outcomes of hope factors to health variables were significantly positive as hypothesized.