The stress process perspective and adaptation of people with schizophrenia--an exploratory study

Adaptation of people suffering from schizophrenia still raises numerous questions left unanswered by correlational studies and predictive models. A theoretical framework likely to bring new answers is the stress process perspective. Using the transactional model of coping, to which psychological and social variables have been added, this exploratory research studies the adaptation of 101 people with schizophrenia.

The research design is correlational with only one crosswise measure.

The model predicts 60.7% of variance of adaptation and gives support that the transactional model of coping contributes to this variance. Five variables show a significant effect and account for 48% of the variance, and three interaction effects (two two-way and one three-way) add another 12.7% to the explained variance.

Results give support to the significant impact of the variables education, age and negative symptoms on adaptation. They highlight the importance of accommodation, a cognitive strategy used by people with schizophrenia to increase their adaptation. They also challenge the broadly accepted assumption of a negative influence of life events on adaptation. Finally, the interaction effects allow us to better understand the mutual effects of variables on adaptation and confirm their relevance.