Understanding the role of interpersonal processes in mood disorders

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管心理疾病在大学生中很常见，学生也可以获得心理保健，但大多数学生并不寻求治疗（Blanco et al., 2008; Rosenthal & Wilson, 2008）。与精神疾病相关的耻辱感是寻求帮助的主要障碍（SAMHSA, 2006）。许多患有精神疾病的学生可能会因自己的精神疾病而被他人耻辱感（社会贬低和疏远）。本研究的目的是将病耻感的研究与人际关系目标和过程的研究相结合，探讨病耻感对精神疾病学生，特别是被诊断为情绪和焦虑障碍的学生的心理困扰和寻求帮助的影响。以往的研究发现，大学生的人际目标可以影响支持关系，并预测大学第一学期抑郁和焦虑症状的变化（Crocker et al., 2010）。有同情心目标的学生通过更支持和回应他人，并得到更多的支持来创造积极的关系螺旋；然而，有自我形象目标的学生，专注于控制别人如何看待自己，破坏了这些积极的关系螺旋。我们假设，精神疾病水平和预期耻辱的结合预示着同情目标的降低和自我形象目标的增加，这创造了一种消极的支持动态，导致精神疾病学生寻求帮助的减少、痛苦的增加和学习成绩的下降。然而，我们预测，如果患有精神疾病的学生的室友有很高的同情目标，他们可以打断这些消极的过程。我们在一项纵向研究中检验了这些预测。有精神病史的学生（在进入大学之前被诊断为情绪或焦虑障碍）和他们的室友将在开学的第一周被招募

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although mental illness is common among college students and students have access to mental health care, most students do not seek treatment (Blanco et al., 2008; Rosenthal & Wilson, 2008). The stigma associated with mental illness poses a major barrier to seeking help (SAMHSA, 2006). Many students with mental illness may anticipate stigma (social devaluing and distancing) from others due to their mental illness. The objective of the current work is to integrate research on stigma with research on interpersonal relationship goals and processes to examine the effects of stigma on psychological distress and help seeking among students with mental illness, specifically students with diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders. Previous research finds that the interpersonal goals of college students can influence supportive relationships and predict change in symptoms of depression and anxiety over the first semester of college (Crocker et al., 2010). Students with compassionate goals create positive relationship spirals by being more supportive and responsive to others and receiving more support in return; whereas students with self-image goals, focused on controlling how others view the self, undermine these positive relationship spirals. We hypothesize that the combination of level of mental illness and anticipated stigma predict decreased compassionate goals and increased self-image goals, which creates a negative support dynamic leading to decreased help seeking, increased distress, and poor academic outcomes for students with mental illness. However, we predict that roommates of students with mental illness can interrupt these negative processes if they have high compassionate goals. We examine these predictions in a longitudinal study. Students with a mental illness history (diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder prior to entering college) and their roommates will be recruited during the first weeks of their first semester in college. Students and their roommates will complete a pre-test session of trait measures of stigma (anticipated, internalized, personal, and perceived), relationship goals, mental health history, symptomatology, mental health treatment, mental health knowledge, and personality variables. Both roommates will then complete daily reports of relationship processes over 21 days, followed by an immediate post-test session, measurement of outcomes again at the end of the first and second semesters, including measures of symptomatology, help-seeking, and academic outcomes. Recruiting pairs allows us to chart relationship dynamics, including feelings of increased trust, responsiveness, and disclosure. This type of predictive, dyadic, longitudinal work is critically needed to make stigma research of clinical use.