Association between social support and life satisfaction among people with substance use disorder: the mediating role of resilience

Abstract

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess the correlation between social support and life satisfaction among individuals with substance use disorder and investigate the mediating effect of resilience between these variables. A total of 513 individuals with substance use disorder aged 19–65 years were recruited from two compulsory detoxification units in Nanjing, China. Participants were requested to independently complete the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. A correlation matrix was used to analyze various characteristics. The relationship among social support, resilience, and life satisfaction was evaluated with hierarchical regression analysis and the bootstrap method, based on a structural equation model. Social support was significantly associated with life satisfaction in individuals with substance use disorder. Moreover, resilience played an intermediary role between social support and life satisfaction in individuals with substance use disorder. Our results confirm resilience partially mediates the association between social support and life satisfaction. These findings provide a clearer understanding regarding the impact of resilience and social support on life satisfaction in individuals with substance use disorder.

Keywords:

• life satisfaction
• resilience
• social support
• individuals with substance use disorder
• mediating effect

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The studies have been approved by the ethics committee of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in Nanjing University. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M632285), the Postdoctoral Research Funding Program of Jiangsu Province (1701078C) and the Jiangsu Province Social Science Fund Project (18SHC006).