Social networks, social support, personal empowerment, and the adaptation of psychiatric consumers/survivors: path analytic models.

In this paper, we examine the relationships between social network characteristics, personal empowerment, social support, and adaptation of psychiatric consumer/survivors. Using path model analyses, we found that: (1) personal empowerment had statistically significant direct effects on positive affect, meaningful activity, and negative affect; (2) positive social support mediated the relationship between the proportion of women in consumer/survivors' networks and positive affect and meaningful activity; and (3) negative social interaction mediated the relationship between consumer/survivors' gender and negative affect. The results point out the importance of gender effects in social support processes, the differential association between type of social interaction (positive vs negative) and adaptation indices (positive vs negative), and the importance of personal empowerment for consumer/survivors' adaptation. We discuss the findings in terms of their implications for further research and community-based housing programmes for psychiatric consumer/survivors.