Experiences of discrimination and the feelings of loneliness in people with psychotic disorders: the mediating effects of self-esteem and support seeking.

OBJECTIVE

People with psychotic disorders frequently become targets of discrimination, which may have devastating effects on their social relations and lead to the feelings of loneliness. This study has explored whether self-esteem and support seeking serve as mediators in the relationship between experiences of discrimination and loneliness.

METHODS

A total of 110 persons with psychotic disorders (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10): F20-F29) were evaluated with self-report measures of discrimination experiences, self-esteem, support seeking and loneliness. The relationships between variables were examined with path modeling. Bootstrap mediation analyses were used for testing the statistical significance of indirect effects.

RESULTS

Experiences of discrimination have been demonstrated to increase the level of loneliness both directly and indirectly. The indirect effect of discrimination on loneliness via self-esteem decrement has been proven to be significant. Support has been also found for a mediation model in which discrimination experiences negatively affect self-esteem, an undermined self-esteem diminishes the tendency to seek social support, and reduced support seeking worsens the sense of loneliness. However, discrimination experiences and support seeking have turned out to be unrelated and thus the hypothesized indirect effect of discrimination on loneliness through the weakening of the willingness to seek social support has not been confirmed by the data.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms through which experiences of discrimination aggravate perceived social isolation. Self-esteem and the tendency to seek social support have emerged as possible targets for interventions aiming to counteract the negative influence of rejection experiences on social relationships of people with psychotic disorders.