Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction for Urban Youth

A randomized controlled trial will be conducted at two urban clinic sites. HIV-positive youth between the ages of 14 and 22 will be recruited and randomized into either an eight-week (with one retreat session) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course (intervention) or an eight-week (with one retreat session) Healthy Topics (HT) course (active control). Measures of psychological functioning, coping, and life satisfaction will take place at baseline, immediately post-program, and 3-months post program. Medical data, including Cluster of Differentiation 4 (CD4) and viral load counts, will also be collected at the three data collection time points.