Social support and mental health during recovery from drug and alcohol problems

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between support provided from friends, family or broader network connections and Keyes' (2007) conceptualisation of complete mental health.

Method: Participants were 1815 individuals (70% male) who entered residential substance abuse treatment provided by The Salvation Army. Questionnaires were completed by participants at their intake assessment to treatment, and 188 participants provided complete responses to a phone interview at 3-months post-discharge.

Results: Changes in general support provided from friends and informal social connectedness were the strongest social variable predictors of complete mental health at 3-month follow-up. Mediation analyses indicated friends' support for abstinence had no effect on complete mental health and general social support had a direct effect on complete mental health. The relationship between informal social connectedness and complete mental health was partially mediated by alcohol use severity.

Conclusions: The current findings indicate informal social connectedness and general support provided by friends is most related to one’s complete mental health in a drug and alcohol misuse context. These findings indicate supporting wider social connection (e.g. neighbours, workmates) could be a target in substance misuse treatment and aftercare.

Keywords:

• Flourishing
• social capital
• recovery capital
• complete mental health

Acknowledgements

This research has been conducted with the support of the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 Mental health and mental illness are used throughout this article to refer to two distinct constructs. Mental health refers to the model of Complete Mental Health proposed by Keyes (2007), encompassing social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. Mental illness refers to disorders affecting mood, thinking and behaviour as classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013).

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by a research consultancy grant to Deane and Kelly from The Salvation Army.