IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v39y1994i2p155-164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of illness attribution and depression on the quality of life among persons with serious mental illness

Author

Listed:
  • Mechanic, David
  • McAlpine, Donna
  • Rosenfield, Sarah
  • Davis, Diane

Abstract

Attributing one's problems to a mental illness is associated with reduced subjective quality of life (QOL) among persons with schizophrenia, controlling for a broad range of socio-demographic, social, clinical, and psychosocial variables. Persons who attributed their problems to a 'physical, medical, or biological' problem in contrast to a 'mental illness' reported more positive social relations and higher overall quality of life. Much of the negative effect of mental illness attributions is explained by perceived stigma, lower self-esteem, and a higher level of depressive symptomatology. Depressive symptoms have an independent negative effect on QOL net of all other variables. These findings have important implications for the appropriate rehabilitation of persons with mental illness and require further scrutiny with prospective data.

Suggested Citation

  • Mechanic, David & McAlpine, Donna & Rosenfield, Sarah & Davis, Diane, 1994. "Effects of illness attribution and depression on the quality of life among persons with serious mental illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 155-164, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:39:y:1994:i:2:p:155-164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(94)90324-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kinderman, Peter & Setzu, Erika & Lobban, Fiona & Salmon, Peter, 2006. "Illness beliefs in schizophrenia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 1900-1911, October.
    2. Mueller, Brigitte & Nordt, Carlos & Lauber, Christoph & Rueesch, Peter & Meyer, Peter C. & Roessler, Wulf, 2006. "Social support modifies perceived stigmatization in the first years of mental illness: A longitudinal approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 39-49, January.
    3. Pescosolido, Bernice A. & Martin, Jack K. & Lang, Annie & Olafsdottir, Sigrun, 2008. "Rethinking theoretical approaches to stigma: A Framework Integrating Normative Influences on Stigma (FINIS)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 431-440, August.
    4. Tam, Hau-lin & Chan, Angus Yuk-fung & Fung, Toby Tin-on & Isangha, Stanley Oloji, 2024. "The mediating effect of psychological strengths and resilience on enhancing youth employability through social entrepreneurship education and training," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Temilola J Mosanya & Adegoke O Adelufosi & Olaolu T Adebowale & Adegboyega Ogunwale & Olaide K Adebayo, 2014. "Self-stigma, quality of life and schizophrenia: An outpatient clinic survey in Nigeria," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(4), pages 377-386, June.
    6. Meiser, Bettina & Mitchell, Philip B. & McGirr, H. & Van Herten, M. & Schofield, Peter R., 2005. "Implications of genetic risk information in families with a high density of bipolar disorder: an exploratory study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 109-118, January.
    7. Constantin Tranulis & Ellen Corin & Laurence J. Kirmayer, 2008. "Insight and Psychosis: Comparing the Perspectives of Patient, Entourage and Clinician," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(3), pages 225-241, May.
    8. Aditya Simha & Sana Ahmed & Ramakrishna Prasad & Akshay S. Dinesh & Arun Kandasamy & Naren P Rao, 2022. "Effect of national cultural dimensions and consumption rates on stigma toward alcohol and substance use disorders," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(7), pages 1411-1417, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:39:y:1994:i:2:p:155-164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.