Use of Social Media by Young Adults with Schizophrenia

描述(申请人提供)：精神分裂症是全球十大致残原因之一，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、行为和情感症状，这些症状干扰了社会关系，导致孤立。这种疾病不仅开始于人们试图建立独立性的关键发育阶段，而且其严重性和发病时间可能会干扰适合年龄的社会角色。因此，精神分裂症患者的网络往往比普通人群更小，非亲属成员也更少。研究人员已经证明，社会联系和支持是精神健康的重要保护因素，对康复至关重要。然而，为这种疾病患者培养这些网络的资源是有限的。有了这些信息 随着年龄的增长，社交媒体已成为年轻人建立、维持和加强其社会关系和支持系统的主要手段。在线社交媒体可能会提供建立关系的机会，否则很难通过面对面的互动来建立关系。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究探索患有精神分裂症的年轻人如何使用社交媒体。这项拟议的混合方法研究将描述40名年龄在18-26岁之间的被诊断为精神分裂症的年轻人如何使用社交媒体，以及使用社交媒体对社会关系和幸福感的影响，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单元。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，确诊时的年龄、住院)的人口统计学调查问卷(性别、种族、教育)外，我们还将调查互联网，特别是社交媒体的使用情况(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；在线与人互动的性质、强度和质量；以及对技术的态度。一个 将对每个社交媒体分量表进行单独的多元回归分析。为了确定青壮年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，以及这些关系在不同群体之间是否存在差异，我们将对社会支持、网络规模和痛苦进行单独的多元回归分析。我们还将确定社交媒体是否帮助患有精神分裂症的年轻人更多地融入社交网络，以及这些体验如何与感知和内化的污名相互作用。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希望的方向，将社交媒体战略调整为支持社交联系的干预措施，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.