SOCIAL NETWORK INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND MEASURES OF FAMILY COPING IN PARENTS OF YOUNG ADULT CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENICS (MENTAL ILLNESS, CONFLICT).
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 166
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The major purpose of this study was to examine family social networks in relation to family capacities for coping by testing the overall hypothesis that parents with dense social networks show less evidence of the constructive processes of adaptation when confronted with chronic schizophrenic illness in their young adult children than parents with more loosely connected social networks. The similarities and differences between the social network characteristics of parents and the patient were also examined.

Forty families with members who met the DSM-III criteria for chronic schizophrenia and were between the ages of 18 and 35 composed the sample. Parents provided information in a semi-structured interview from which measures of social network interconnectedness, knowledge of schizophrenia, knowledge and use of community resources, family conflict and social competence were obtained. Patients were interviewed concerning their social networks. The hypothesis that social network interconnectedness is related to family adaptation in the chronic stress of schizophrenia was not consistently supported across the subgroups of couples and single mothers in this study. The hypotheses were most generally supported in the subgroup of single mothers, although not at as powerful a level of significance as expected. Within this subgroup, the evidence supported a negative relationship between social network interconnectedness and knowledge of schizophrenia and its treatment (r = -0.44, p = 0.04). The subgroup of married mothers demonstrated a negative relationship between social network interconnectedness and social competence (r = -0.61, p = 0.00). The subgroup of husbands demonstrated a negative relationship between interconnectedness and multidimensionality of friendships (r = -0.71, p = 0.01). Strong similarities were evidenced in the structural characteristics of the social networks of couples. Social networks of patients were more similar to those of their parents than not. Methodological and clinical explanations for these findings are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: B, page: 2838.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1986.

School code: 0188.