Examination of relationships among schizophrenic patients' quality of life, close family members' beliefs toward mental illness, ways of coping with stress, perceived family burden and expressed emotions

This study was carried out by using a sample of schizophrenia patients along with their close family members who were in the position of care givers providing for the needs of the patients as well as being the ones with whom the patients spent most of their time. The study attempted to investigate relationships between each other of a number of factors, namely close family members' beliefs toward mental illness, their ways of coping with stress, perceived family burden and expressed emotions. Furthermore, the study also considered the relationship between the aforementioned variables and the patients' quality of life. The sample used in the study consisted of fifty schizophrenia patients and their care giving-close family members. Some of the patients were members of a schizophrenia association while the rest of them were registered patients of the Society Mental Health Center of a state hospital. The numbers of female and male patients in the sample were 14 and 36 respectively. Of the family members in the sample, 34 were female and 16 were male. Average age of the patients and the family members of the sample was 39,9 and 53,86 respectively. A half structured interview with every patient in the sample was conducted and the Schizophrenic Patients' Quality of Life Scale was scored by the researcher. As for the family members, they filled in the Beliefs toward Mental Illness Scale, the Styles of Coping with Stress Scale, the Perceived Family Burden Scale and the Expressed Emotions Scale in addition to the Demographic Information Form. According to the results of the study, there were correlations among the family members-related variables, as expected a priori. However, there was a significant and negatively signed relationship between the patients' quality of life and the perceived family burden only. The results also showed that the perceived family burden variable had predictive power on the patients' quality of life variable. As regards the relationship between expressed emotions and quality of life, its statistical significance was found to be at the border only. It was therefore concluded that future studies along these lines ought to employ samples having better features, particularly in terms of size. As for the variables related to the patients' close family members, there was found that the perceived family burden played a mediator role in the relationship between the beliefs toward mental illness and the expressed emotions. In conclusion, the study investigated and attained important findings on the issue of in-family social factors affecting the patients' quality of life and the expressed emotions level of the close family members. Key words: schizophrenic patients' quality of life, beliefs toward mental illness, ways of coping with stress, perceived family burden, expressed emotions