Use of Social Media by Young Adults with Schizophrenia

描述（由申请人提供）：精神分裂症是世界范围内十大残疾原因之一，经常导致严重的心理社会困难和经济挫折。 精神分裂症患者经常经历令人痛苦的认知，行为和情绪症状，干扰社会关系并导致孤立。这种疾病不仅在人们试图建立独立性的关键发育阶段开始开始，而且其严重程度和发病时间可能会干扰与年龄相适应的社会角色。因此，精神分裂症患者的网络往往比一般人群小，非亲属成员也更少。研究人员已经证明，社会联系和支持是心理健康的重要保护因素，对康复至关重要。然而，为这种疾病患者建立这些网络的资源是有限的。与信息 随着年龄的增长，社交媒体已成为年轻人建立、维持和加强社会联系和支持系统的主要手段。在线社交媒体可以提供机会，建立否则难以通过面对面互动建立的关系。然而，迄今为止还没有研究探讨精神分裂症患者如何使用社交媒体。这项拟议的混合方法研究将描述40名年龄在18-26岁之间被诊断患有精神分裂症的年轻人如何使用社交媒体，以及社交媒体的使用如何影响社会关系和幸福感，并将其与40名没有精神疾病的年轻人的社区样本进行比较。一个由内容专家和有生活经验的人组成的咨询委员会将为这项研究的各个方面提供信息。根据他们的反馈和对样本子集（每组10人）进行定性访谈的结果，我们将完善定量评估组合。然后，我们将对整个样本进行60-90分钟的面对面调查。除了包括与临床样本相关的问题（例如，诊断时的年龄，住院），我们将研究如何使用互联网，特别是社交媒体（例如，电子邮件;短信;视频游戏; Facebook和其他社交媒体;以及在线友谊）;选择的原因;与在线人员互动的性质，强度和质量;以及对技术的态度。一 将对每个社交媒体子量表进行单独的多变量回归分析。为了确定年轻精神分裂症患者使用社交媒体是否与社会支持，网络规模和痛苦有关，以及这些关系是否在各组之间存在差异，我们将对社会支持，网络规模和痛苦进行单独的多变量回归分析。我们还将确定社交媒体是否有助于年轻的精神分裂症患者感觉更多地融入社交网络，以及这些经历如何与感知和内化的耻辱相互作用。通过了解社交媒体的使用和好处（如果有的话），我们可以确定这是否是一个有前途的方向，将社交媒体策略融入支持社会联系的干预措施，如社交技能培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Schizophrenia is among the top ten causes of disability worldwide, often leading to significant psychosocial difficulties and economic setbacks. Individuals with schizophrenia often experience distressing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms that interfere with social relationships and lead to isolation. Not only does the illness begin during a critical developmental stage when people are trying to establish independence, but its severity and time of onset may interfere with age-appropriate social roles. Thus, the networks of people with schizophrenia tend to be smaller than the general population and have fewer non-kin members. Researchers have documented that social connectedness and supports are important protective factors for mental health and critical for recovery. However, resources that foster these networks for people with this illness are limited. With the information age, social media has become the primary means by which young adults establish, maintain, and enhance their social connections and support systems. Online social media may offer opportunities to establish relationships that would otherwise be difficult to pursue through face-to-face interactions. Yet, no research to date has explored how young adults with schizophrenia use social media. This proposed mixed methods study will describe how 40 young adults aged 18-26 diagnosed with schizophrenia use social media and how its use impacts social relationships and well-being, and compare it to a community sample of 40 young adults without mental illness. An Advisory Board comprised of content experts and people with lived experience will inform various aspects of this study. With their feedback and findings from qualitative interviews with a subset of the sample (10 from each group), we will refine the quantitative assessment battery. We will then conduct in-person 60-90-minute surveys of the entire sample. In addition to a demographic questionnaire (gender, race, education) that includes questions pertinent to the clinical sample (e.g., age at diagnosis, hospitalizations), we will examine how the Internet, particularly social media, is used (e.g., email; text messaging; video gaming; Facebook and other social media; and online friendships); reasons for the choice; nature, intensity, and quality of interaction with people online; and attitudes about technology. A separate multivariate regression analysis will be performed for each social media subscale. To determine if the use of social media by young adults with schizophrenia is related to social support, size of network, and distress and if these relationships differ between groups, we will conduct a separate multivariate regression analysis for social support, size of network and distress. We will also determine whether social media helps young adults with schizophrenia feel more included in social networks, and how these experiences interact with perceived and internalized stigma. Through understanding the usage and benefits (if any) of social media, we can determine if this is a promising direction for tailoring social media strategies into interventions, such as social skills training, that support social connectedness.