Social support and schizophrenia: A review of the literature

Within an interactive model of schizophrenia, social support is postulated to serve as a protective factor that facilitates coping and competence, thus modulating the deleterious effects of social and environmental stressors. Although there is growing evidence of the importance of social support in influencing the course of schizophrenia, the evidence suffers from many methodological weaknesses including vagueness in the conceptualization, operations, and measurement of the construct. These are discussed from the perspective of the social support research in general, and from the social support-schizophrenia perspective. Despite the wide range of research approaches and methodological problems encountered, common threads in respect to social support are found