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Social support and quality of life of community support clients

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Abstract

Two aspects of social support, availability and adequacy, were assessed for 729 severely mentally ill adults enrolled in seven state-supported Community Support Services (CSS) programs as part of repeated questionnaire surveys nine months apart. Perceived quality of life interviews with the clients were also conducted at both times. These interviews included the Bradburn Positive and Negative Affect Scales and the Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale (SLDS). Availability of social support was significantly correlated with postive affect over time, but not with negative affect at either point. Inadequacy of social support was significantly related to negative affect at both assessments. Both availability and adequacy of social support were significantly related to the SLDS at each time. Change in satisfaction with life domains was found to be related to both availability and, to a lesser degree, with adequacy of social support.

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The author gratefully acknowledge the help of Robert S. Weiss, Harry Straus and David Mandel in the collection and analysis of the data reported here. The data were obtained as part of an evaluation of the New York CSS program funded by a contract between the New York State NY. Additonal funding for the analysis of the data was provided by a grant to the first author from the New York State Health reasearch Council (HRC 15-074).

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Baker, F., Jodrey, D. & Intagliata, J. Social support and quality of life of community support clients. Community Ment Health J 28, 397–411 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00761058

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