Abstract
Personal recovery is a process of developing new meaning and purpose in life beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness. Benefit finding (BF) is conceptualized as finding positive changes or benefits through experiences in adversity. Sense of coherence (SOC) focuses on how people can stay healthy and maintain well-being, even in adversity. This study aimed to examine the relationships among the initial levels and longitudinal changes in personal recovery, BF, and SOC among people with chronic mental illness in Japan. In this longitudinal study, a two-wave self-report questionnaire survey was conducted for service users aged 20 or older with mental illness using convenience sampling method in 2014 and 2015. We applied the Latent Change Score approach. Model fit was evaluated according to the CFI and RMSEA. Among 373 eligible participants at baseline, valid responses in both T1 and T2 from 195 respondents were included in the study (valid response rate = 52.3%). Among them, 65.6% were male, with average age of 45.6. The model of the three constructs at the two time points had good to reasonable fit to the data. The initial levels and changes in personal recovery, BF, and SOC were significantly and positively related to each other.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the work of Prof. Yuko Nagai (Jichi Medical University) in contributing to data collection for this study.
Disclosure Statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Notes on contributors
Rie Chiba
Rie Chiba is a Professor in the Department of Nursing, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe University, Japan. Areas of interest are positive psychology, psychiatric nursing, and personal recovery among people with mental illness.
Yoshihiko Yamazaki
Yoshihiko Yamazaki is a Professor in the Faculty of Social Welfare, Nihon Fukushi University, Japan. Areas of interest are Health Sociology and Sense of Coherence.
Yuki Miyamoto
Yuki Miyamoto is an Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan. Areas of interest are psychiatric nursing, and personal recovery among people with mental illness.
Akiko Funakoshi
Akiko Funakoshi is a Professor in the Kobe City College of Nursing, Japan. Areas of interest are psychiatric nursing, and personal recovery among people with mental illness.