Browsing by Author "Huotarinen, Nonna"

This Pro gradu -thesis studies social relations of individuals who have some of the non affective psychosis. How does experiences in social relations differ between groups of people where in one group are the individuals who have psychosis and in other group are people who don't have psychosis? In this thesis social relations were divided in three groups, spouse, kin and friend – relations. Hypothesis was, that those who had psychosis, have more negative experiences and less positive experiences in their relations than those who don't have a psychotic disease. NCS-1 survey was carried out in the early 1990s with a household sample of over 8,000 respondents. Non affective psychosis disorder was diagnosed with 66 respondents. Based on previous evidence that survey nonrespondents have higher rates of psychiatric disorder than respondents, a supplemental nonresponse survey was carried out in parallel with the main survey. In this supplemental survey, a random sample of initial nonrespondents were offered a financial incentive to complete a short form of the diagnostic interview. Elevated rates of both lifetime and current psychiatric disorders were found among these initial nonrespondents. A nonresponse adjustment weight was constructed for the main survey data to compensate for this systematic nonresponse. Respondents experiences in their relations with spouses, kin and friends were mapped with twelve questions, six questions comprising positive experiences and six questions comprising negative experiences. In this thesis positive and negative experiences were formulated into two sumvariables for each spouse, kin and friends. Then variables where standardized, after which parameter estimates, confidence intervals and p-value were estimated by One Way Analysis Of Variance. According to the hypothesis those who had a psychotic disorder had less intimate relationships than those who didn't. Individuals with psychotic disorder had more negative experiences and less positive experiences in their intimate relationships than those who had no psychotic disorder. Difference was statistically significant. Outcome was similar with relations to kin. Difference in meeting frequency was not statistically significant with these two groups in relations to kin. In relations to friends statistically significant difference was found in positive experiences, individuals with psychotic disorders had fewer positive experiences. Individuals with psychotic disorders and those close to them need support in their social relations.