ABSTRACT
People who are HIV positive must confront a series of difficult decisions when they consider disclosing their HIV status. This chapter offers a theoretical map that lays a foundation to understand when people choose to reveal their HIV diagnosis, when they refrain from making that status known to others, and the consequences of these choices. To study how and why people conceal or reveal their HIV status, we apply Petronio’s (2002) theory of communication privacy management (CPM) to understand the decisions people with HIV make about disclosing or concealing their illness (e.g., Greene & Faulkner, 2002; Greene & Serovich, 1996; Petronio, 2000a; Petronio, Reeder, Hecht, & Mon’t Ros-Mendoza, 1996; Yep, 2000).
