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Personality and self‐variables: important determinants of subjective quality of life in schizophrenia out‐patients
Author(s) -
Eklund M.,
Bäckström M.,
Hansson L.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0447.2003.00103.x
Subject(s) - psychology , personality , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , quality of life (healthcare) , structural equation modeling , psychopathology , trait , big five personality traits , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , statistics , mathematics , computer science , programming language
Objective: To investigate factors determining severely mentally ill patients’ self‐rated quality of life. The study hypothesized that objective life circumstances, personality, self‐variables, and psychopathology would be determinants of quality of life. Method: A total of 117 individuals with schizophrenia and related disorders were investigated. Structural equation modelling was used to: 1) investigate if one or more subfactors best described the covariance within each potential determinant and quality of life, 2) explore the relations between all variables and factors extracted in step 1. Results: A multi‐factorial model indicated that a self‐factor and two psychopathology factors worked as mediators of self‐rated quality of life, in turn composed of an internal and an external aspect. Personality dimensions and objective life circumstances accounted directly or indirectly for substantial parts of quality of life. Conclusion: The relative importance of individual characteristics and objective indices was shown. Trait‐like properties, such as the self‐factor and personality, explained most of the variation in self‐rated quality of life.