Research Interests for Kathleen J Sikkema

Research Interests:

Professor Sikkema, is a clinical psychologist with emphases in health and community psychology, and the Director of the Social and Behavioral Science Core in Duke's Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Her expertise is in the conduct of randomized, controlled HIV prevention and mental health intervention trials, both domestic and international. Professor Sikkema's research is focused on the development and evaluation of HIV risk behavior change interventions, with expertise in community-level interventions. She has served as the P.I. of two multi-site, community level interventions trials, one undertaken with women and the other with adolescents living in low-income housing developments in geographically diverse U.S. cities. Sikkema conducted two other prevention intervention studies, one with abused women in South Africa and the other among persons with severe mental illness who are formerly homeless and currently living in supportive housing programs. Professor Sikkema also conducts research on the development of HIV-related coping and secondary prevention interventions and has been the PI of three randomized, controlled trials evaluating group interventions for men and women with HIV. Her HIV mental health research has focused on developing group intervention models to assist persons with HIV disease who are coping with HIV-related stressors. These include AIDS-related loss and bereavement, traumatic stress due to childhood sexual abuse, and issues specific to coping with HIV among men and women over 50 years of age. Professor Sikkema is currently involved in two South African studies, one to evaluate the effectiveness of a family-based intervention to increase resiliency among children with HIV-positive mothers and another to develop a risk reduction intervention for adolescents in biomedical prevention trials. She has pilot tested a brief, primary care-based risk reduction intervention for newly diagnosed and likely recently HIV infected men, and has conducted research related to acute HIV infection.

Representative Publications
  1. Sikkema K.J., Wilson, P.D, Hansen, N.B., Kochman, A., Neufeld, S., Ghebremichael, M.S., & Kershaw, T., Effects of a coping intervention on transmission risk behavior among people living with HIV and a history of childhood sexual abuse, JAIDS (2008).
  2. Sikkema, K.J., Hansen, N.B., Kochman, A., Tarakeshwar, N., Neufeld, S., Meade, C.S., & Fox, A.M., Outcomes from a group intervention for coping with HIV/AIDS and childhood sexual abuse: Reductions in traumatic stress, AIDS and Behavior, vol. 11 (2007), pp. 49-60.
  3. Sikkema, K.J., Hansen, N.B., Ghebremichael, M., Kochman, A., Tarakeshwar, N., Meade, C.S., & Zhang, H., A randomized controlled trial of a coping group intervention for adults with HIV who are AIDS bereaved: Longitudinal effects on grief, Health Psychology, vol. 25 (2006), pp. 563-570.
  4. Sikkema, K.J., Anderson, E.S., Kelly, J.A., Winett, R.A., Gore-Felton, C., Roffman, R.A., Heckman, T.G., Graves, K., Hoffman, R., & Brondino, M.J., Outcomes of a randomized, controlled community-level HIV prevention intervention for adolescents in low-income housing developments, AIDS, vol. 19 (2005), pp. 1509-1516.
  5. Meade, C.S., & Sikkema, K.J., HIV risk behavior among adults with severe mental illness: A systematic review, Clinical Psychology Review, vol. 25 (2005), pp. 433-457.
  6. Sikkema, K.J., Hansen, N.B., Meade, C.S., Kochman, A., & Lee, R.S., Improvements in health-related quality of life following a group intervention for coping with AIDS-bereavement among HIV-infected men and women, Quality of Life Research, vol. 14 (2005), pp. 991-1005.
  7. Sikkema, K.J., Kelly J.A., Winett, R.A., Solomon, L.J., Cargill, V.A., Roffman, R.A., McAuliffe, T.L., Heckman, T.G., Anderson, E.S., Wagstaff, D.A., Norman, A.D., Perry, M.J., Crumble, D.A., & Mercer, M.B., Outcomes of a randomized community-level HIV prevention intervention for women living in 18 low-income housing developments, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 90 (2000), pp. 57-63.