COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL SUPPORT AND QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN SEVERELY MENTALLY-ILL, LOW-INCOME INDIVIDUALS AND A GENERAL-POPULATION GROUP

Satisfaction with social support and quality of life (QOL) were assess ed for 60 psychiatric patients, 79 welfare recipients and 266 people o f the general population using the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and t he Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale (SLDS). Psychiatric patients r eported less satisfaction than the general population on all component s of social support. They have a comparable level of satisfaction with welfare recipients on most of the components, with the exception of e motional integration and opportunity for nurturance. However, patients satisfaction with QOL was quite similar to the general population, al though 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 SP S and SLDS scales seem to be good instruments for discriminating the m ajority of psychiatric patients.