Components of social support and quality of life in severely mentally ill, low income individuals and a general population group

Abstract

Satisfaction with social support and quality of life (QOL) were assessed for 60 psychiatric patients, 79 welfare recipients and 266 people of the general population using the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and the Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale (SLDS). Psychiatric patients reported less satisfaction than the general population on all components of social support. They have a comparable level of satisfaction with welfare recipients on most of the components, with the exception of emotional integration and opportunity for nurturance. However, patients satisfaction with QOL was quite similar to the general population, although higher than welfare recipients on some dimensions. Their lower satisfaction with the personal-intimate dimension suggest deficiencies in social support. All components of social support were consistently related to QOL in the general population. Attachment and reassurance of worth was significant for psychiatric patients but only attachment was related to QOL for the welfare recipients group. The pairing of SPS and SLDS scales seem to be good instruments for discriminating the majority of psychiatric patients.