A longitudinal study on the effects of social support on self-stigma, psychiatric symptoms, and personal and social functioning in community patients with severe mental illnesses in China

Ning Ma, Runzi Chen, Yu Bai, Wufang Zhang, Zecong Chen, Jun Zhou, Yajie Cao, Liping Wen, Xiaobing Chen, Xuhui Zhan and Yunge Fan

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2024, vol. 70, issue 5, 957-966

Abstract: Background: Few studies have examined whether social support contributes to better consequences among chronic patients with severe mental illnesses (SMI) in their community recovery stage and whether self-stigma would be a mechanism through which social support impacts psychiatric symptoms and personal and social functioning. Aims: This study aimed to examine prospective associations of social support with long-term self-stigma, psychiatric symptoms, and personal and social functioning, and to investigate whether self-stigma would mediate the associations of social support with psychiatric symptoms and personal and social functioning among patients with SMI. Methods: A total of 312 persons with SMI (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) in their community recovery stage participated in the study. Social support, self-stigma, psychiatric symptoms, and personal and social functioning were evaluated at baseline. The follow-up assessment was conducted at 6 months with the baseline measures except for social support. Hierarchical linear regression and mediation analysis were performed. Results: The results showed that baseline social support predicted decreases in stigma (β = −.115, p  = .029) and psychiatric symptoms (β = −.193, p  

Keywords: Severe mental illness; social support; self-stigma; psychiatric symptoms; personal and social functioning; community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:70:y:2024:i:5:p:957-966

DOI: 10.1177/00207640241245932

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