Photo Credit: Jacob Wackerhausen

The following is a summary of “Relationship quality among persons with serious mental illness and their relatives: rates and correlates,” published in the May 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Labrum et al.

Supportive family relationships for people with serious mental illness (SMI) are linked to better functional, health, and mental health outcomes, which are crucial for recovery. However, there hasn’t been much research on positive family dynamics.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study examining how demographics, clinical characteristics, and supportive versus problematic interactions affect relationship quality with reference relatives (RR). Additionally, we tested if the link between RR’s routine limit-setting and relationship quality was mediated by perceived emotional overinvolvement.

They used multivariate logistic regression and analyzed data from a U.S. community-recruited sample of people with SMI (N=523). We focused on the factors associated with relationship quality with RR and employed Baron and Kenny’s four-step method to test for mediation by perceived emotional overinvolvement.

The results showed that two-thirds of the sample reported high relationship quality. Positive relationship quality was linked to frequent contact between participants and RR, participants helping RR with daily activities, and caregiving by RR. Negative factors included RR being parents or other family members (versus romantic partners), perceived emotional overinvolvement by RR, and psychological abuse by RR. Clinical and demographic characteristics did not affect relationship quality. Emotional overinvolvement mediated the effect of routine limit-setting on relationship quality.

Investigators concluded that the findings could guide clinicians in identifying factors that enhance recovery, emphasizing the importance of managing family dynamics, particularly emotional overinvolvement, and routine limit-setting practices.

Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-024-10069-8