Personal recovery and future self-continuity in individuals with schizophrenia

Personal (or self-rated) recovery in schizophrenia represents an adaptive process of constructing meaning in life, finding hope, and establishing a positive identity. In this sense, recovery is linked to and dependent upon one's sense of future self. Although self-rated recovery has been explored in relation to various affective, social, and psychological factors, the relationship between personal recovery and future-self continuity has not been examined. Future self-continuity (or continuous identity) refers to the sense of connection between one's present and future self, as the same person now as in the future. Individuals, who cannot connect their present selves to future selves view their future self as a stranger and have a decreased sense of self-empowerment and feel less motivated to work towards future-oriented and personally meaningful treatment goals. We postulate that having good future self-continuity may be a prerequisite to success in recovery-oriented treatment programs. The current study explored the relationship between self-rated recovery and future self-continuity in individuals with schizophrenia.

Forty participants with schizophrenia were recruited from two inpatient units and completed a battery of assessments including cognitive functioning, symptom severity, level of functioning as well as an assessment of personal recovery.

The results indicated that higher future self-continuity predicted better personal recovery in individuals with schizophrenia after controlling for key demographic variables, symptom severity, psychosocial and cognitive functioning ability.

Future self-continuity was the only significant psychological variable that predicted personal recovery in individuals with schizophrenia. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.