The themes emerged inductivelyfrom the transcripts. Themes indicate resilience where the participants mentioned methods used to re-build self-esteem, life meaning, and control over their illness, offering support for Taylor’s (1983) Cognitive Adaptation Theory(CAT). The participants coped positivelywith their illness bypositivelyinterpreting their situation and making behaviour changes. Positivelyinterpreting their situation was achieved with both downward comparison, as proposed bythe CAT (Taylor, 1983) to increase self-esteem, and upward comparison, proposed later byTaylor and Lobel (1989), to give hope for things to improve, were reported. The positive effects of social comparison have been found in other illness groups, for example, cancer (Van der Zee, Buunk, Sanderman, Botke, & Van den Bergh, 2000), and M e´nie` re’s disease (Dibb & Yardley, 2006). This positive interpretation of the comparison information supports adjustment theor- ists who suggest we have a natural tendencyto interpret the world positivelyand adapt to adverse circumstances (Schwartz & Sprangers, 2000). The ‘‘Positive changes in coping’’ subtheme, ‘‘positive behavioural changes’’, shows positive cop- ing and a positive attitude to managing health decisions, again supporting the CAT (Taylor, 1983), where the onset of a crisis leads to a need to regain control (mastery). Siegel and Schrimshaw (2000) found a similar theme in their research with people with HIV, which theylabelled ‘‘motivation to make health behaviour changes’’; in the current study, however, the participants took this theme further, beyond motivation, to initiate behaviour change. This theme also supports Onwumere et al. (2002) who found that practical changes were associated with positive outcomes in a sample of African women with HIV. It was also evident that these behavioural changes were improving their perceptions of control over their lives. The participants also perceived change since their diagnosis, as evidenced bythe superordinate theme ‘‘positive growth since the HIV diagnosis’’, again supporting the CAT (Taylor, 1983) where perceiving positive growth is proposed to give meaning to the situation. Meaning was gained with positive growth in regard to the value theyattached to life and their goals and perceived opportunities. This is supported byanother studywith women with HIV living in the US where changes the meaning of life was also found (Siegel & Schrimshaw, 2000). Consistent with pre- vious research, all of the women had also managed to reformulate their life goals to incorporate HIV allowing them to see different opportunities available to them and give new meaning to their lives (Doyal & AIDS Care 147 Anderson, 2005a; Siegel & Schrimshaw, 2000). Involvement within the HIV communityallowed for the maintenance of these values, whilst also providing the opportunityto strengthen oneself as well as others (Dodds, Hickson, Chinouya, Chwaula, & Westher- burn, 2008). The importance of remaining part of a communitycould be considered even more important for people from African cultures than Western ones, with values of mutual care, belonging and interde- pendence considered highlyimportant in these cultur- al groups (Singelis, 1998; Triandis, 1995). This studywas conducted with a small sample of women to gain insight into their subjective experi- ences of living with HIV/AIDS; thus, there are limitations to the generalisabilityand applicability of these findings to the wider population of African women in London and elsewhere. The women were recruited using opportunistic and snowball sampling, through a support group network, and could be significantlydifferent from women not using support groups. This studyhas provided insight into the abilityof HIV positive African women living in London to create strategies to cope and live positivelywith HIV/ AIDS. The findings provide strong support for the CAT (Taylor, 1983), with regaining mastery, enhan- cing self-esteem, and finding meaning evident in the data. Strategies used bythis sample that resulted in regaining control, self-enhancing, and giving meaning maybe important to health professionals developing self-management programmes for people with HIV. Further work looking at the value placed on specific forms of recoveryand growth byAfrican people living with HIV/AIDS would add value to this under- researched topic and allow a better understanding of adjustment cross-culturally. References Anderson, J., & Doyal, L. (2004). Women from Africa living with HIV in London: A descriptive study. AIDS Care, 16(1), 95 105. Department of Health. (2005). HIV and AIDS in African communities: A framework for better prevention and care. London: Department of Health. Dibb, B., & Yardley, L. (2006). How does social compar- ison within a self-help group inﬂuence adjustment to chronic illness? A longitudinal study. Social Science and Medicine, 63(6), 1602 1613. Dodds, C. (2006). HIV-related stigma in England: Experi- ences of gaymen and heterosexual African migrants living with HIV. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 16, 472 480. Dodds, C., Hickson, F., Chinouya, M., Chwaula, J., & Westherburn, P. (2008). The knowledge, the will and the