Stigma, Discrimination, Empowerment and Social Networks: a Preliminary Investigation of Their Influence On Subjective Quality of Life in a Swedish Sample

Bertil Lundberg, Lars Hansson, Elisabet Wentz and Tommy Björkman
Additional contact information
Bertil Lundberg: Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, PO Box 157, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden, bertil.lundberg@med.lu.se
Lars Hansson: Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, PO Box 157, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden
Elisabet Wentz: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Göteborg University, Kungsgatan 12, S-411 19 Göteborg, Sweden
Tommy Björkman: Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, PO Box 157, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2008, vol. 54, issue 1, 47-55

Abstract: Background: Studies investigating the importance of social network, empowerment and experiences of stigma on subjective quality of life among persons with mental illness are rare. Aim: This study aimed to investigate beliefs of devaluation/discrimination, actual rejection experiences, empowerment, social network and the relationship of these factors to subjective quality of life among subjects with mental illness. Methods: A cross-sectional study assessing beliefs of devaluation/discrimination, actual rejection experiences, empowerment, social network and subjective quality of life was performed on 150 subjects with mental illness. Results: The factors most prominently related to subjective quality of life were overall empowerment and overall social network. For a subgroup of subjects suffering from psychotic disorders there was a significant negative relationship between subjective quality of life and rejection experiences. This group also reported more frequent rejection experiences. Conclusion: The findings indicate that persons with mental illness are a heterogeneous group with regard to the influence of social network, stigma and empowerment on subjective quality of life. The negative impact of actual rejection experiences might express that, in order to increase subjective quality of life, stigma must be addressed as a separate and important factor in its own right.

Keywords: actual rejection experiences; devaluation/discrimination; empowerment; social network; subjective quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764007082345 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:54:y:2008:i:1:p:47-55

DOI: 10.1177/0020764007082345

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().