Predictors of social relations in persons with schizophrenia living in the community: a Nordic multicentre study

Abstract

Living in urban areas, being female, having a high GAF score and low scores on hostility predicted better integration in terms of number of contacts and emotional relations.

Social Networks and Social Interaction among People with Psychiatric Disabilities-Comparison of Users of Day Centres and Clubhouses

“…Several factors may explain this, such as the fact that the DC group was rated lower on psychosocial functioning, which has shown to be a predictor of smaller social networks in previous research (Sörgaard et al, 2001). Although psychosocial functioning showed a bivariate association with social network in the present study it was not significant in any of the regression analyses, which indicates that other predictors were more important.…”

“…Where the follow-up perspective is concerned, belonging to the group with a larger social network was predicted by being a woman, participating in a clubhouse programme and belonging to the group with a larger social network at baseline. Females have in previous studies been reported to have larger social networks Sörgaard et al, 2001), but there are also studies reporting no differences between women and men (Goldberg et al, 2003). Baseline social network was smaller in the DC group compared to the clubhouse group and declined further over time; it thus appears logical that belonging to the clubhouse group was associated with a larger social network at follow-up.…”

“…This is in line with our finding that the DC group to a lesser extent had someone they saw as a close friend compared to the clubhouse group. This could be due to their lower level of psychosocial functioning (Sörgaard et al, 2001), but could also be a result of the organisation within the programmes. If this is the case, the DC services were less successful in supporting the establishment of informal social relationships, and thus less successful in applying an important principle of personal recovery.…”

“…If this is the case, the DC services were less successful in supporting the establishment of informal social relationships, and thus less successful in applying an important principle of personal recovery. Research among people with psychosis has shown that those whose social networks consisted primarily of friends and other non-relatives reported better recovery and better social and occupational functioning compared to people whose networks were composed primarily of relatives (Erickson, Beiser, & Iacono, 1998;Sörgaard et al, 2001). This suggests that opportunities for people with psychiatric disabilities to add non-relatives to their social network would be important and strengthen their chances for personal recovery.…”

“…A higher education level (Goldberg, Rollins, & Lehman, 2003), higher age, living in a house compared to a flat (Eklund & Hansson, 2007), higher scores on self-esteem and quality of life and fewer psychiatric symptoms (Goldberg et al, 2003;Sörgaard et al, 2001) have all shown a positive association with larger network size. Furthermore, being female, living in an urban area and better psychosocial functioning has predicted a larger social network and more emotional relations (Sörgaard et al, 2001). …”