Coping and schizophrenia: a re-analysis

Standard notions of coping have not been particularly fruitful in the study of schizophrenia. However, facilitation of adaptive coping with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia is an important part of mental health care in general and of psychiatric nursing in particular. This study explored factors of coping and examined their relation with symptom severity and with quality of life of outpatients with schizophrenia. Data were analyzed from a previous cross-sectional study, using the Ways of Coping Checklist, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and the Wisconsin Quality of Life Index. A principal component factor analysis was performed on the Ways of Coping Checklist scores, and the resulting six coping factors were then tested for correlations with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Wisconsin Quality of Life Index scores. Factors conceptually linked with emotion-focused coping were more strongly associated with symptom severity and with quality of life than were factors conceptually linked with problem-focused coping. The emotion-focused versus problem-focused coping framework was only partly explanatory. It may be fruitful to study whether supportive counseling enhances beneficial factors conceptually linked with emotion-focused coping of individuals with schizophrenia.