Self-efficacy and psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia: A mediational analysis
Received 15 October 2004; received in revised form 17 February 2005; accepted 21 February 2005.
Abstract
The construct of self-efficacy has been hypothesized to mediate the relationship between efforts at coping with psychiatric illness and functional outcome. This study examined whether self-efficacy mediated the relationships between psychosocial functioning and important predictors of functioning: premorbid functioning, negative symptoms, and cognitive functioning. Although self-efficacy was positively associated with psychosocial functioning, it did not mediate the relationships between functioning and the other established predictors. Rather, negative symptoms were the strongest predictor of functioning and mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and functioning. The findings suggest that negative symptoms, and not self-efficacy, are the most critical determinants of psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia, and that psychosocial treatment should focus on the amelioration of these symptoms.
aNew York-Presbyterian Hospital The Westchester Division, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY 10605, USA
bNew Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, 105 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 033301, USA
Corresponding author. New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, 105 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301, USA. Tel.: +1 603 271 5747; fax: +1 603 271 5265.
1 Hall-Brooke Behavioral Health Services, 47 Long Lots Road, Westport, CT 06880, United States. Tel.: +1 203 227 1251; fax: +1 203 226 8616.
ABSTRACT