The Study On The Social Adaptation Strategies Of PLWHA

Since the first case of PLWHA (People living with HIV/AIDS) was found in Beijing in1985, the number of PLWHA increased year by year in China. With the spread of AIDS, more and more scholars have realized that AIDS is not only a medical and public health problem, but also a social problem worthy of worldwide attention. In the recently decades, researchers in social science have done a lot of research. But most of these often emphasized the social dilemmas which the PLWHA faced, and always portrayed them as effeminate. It is rarely discussed that how PLWHA perceive AIDS as a practice subject.And the researchers usually neglected adaptability of PLWHA when they face the difficulty.This paper attempts to break this mode of thinking. It regards PLWHA as individual with subjectivity in structural constraints and studies their strategic efforts in face of social adaptation difficulties.Based on the unstructured interviews of58PLWHA in Wuhan, the author found that PLWHA faced psychological, family, economic, social identity and social policy dilemmas. PLWHA in troubles were not waiting for rescue, they took various strategies to adapt to the society. Subsequently, through analysis of the strategy, the author believes that there are some problems with the adaptation strategies of PLWHA, for example the conflict of temporary adaptation and long-term adaptation. At last the author attempts to put forward the countermeasures.