Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX, 76107, USA.
Department of Health Behavior and Health Systems, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX, 76107, USA.
BMC Psychol. 2021 Jan 6;9(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s40359-020-00507-0.
Social support is a well-known protective factor against depressive symptoms and substance use problems, but very few studies have examined its protective effects among residents of permanent supportive housing (PSH), a housing program for people with a history of chronic homelessness. We utilized unconditional latent growth curve models (LGCMs) and parallel process growth models to describe univariate trajectories of social support, depressive symptoms, and substance use problems and to examine their longitudinal associations in a large sample of adults residing in PSH.
Participants were 653 adult PSH residents in North Texas (56% female; 57% Black; mean age: 51 years) who participated in a monthly health coaching program from 2014 to 2017. Their health behaviors were assessed at baseline and tracked every six months at three follow-up visits.
Unconditional LGCMs indicated that over time, social support increased, whereas depressive symptoms and substance use problems decreased. However, their rates of change slowed over time. Further, in parallel process growth models, we found that at baseline, individuals with greater social support tended to have less severe depressive symptoms and substance use problems (coefficients: - 0.67, p < 0.01; - 0.52, p < 0.01, respectively). Individuals with a faster increase in social support tended to have steeper rates of reduction in both depressive symptoms (coefficient: - 0.99, p < 0.01) and substance use problems (coefficient: - 0.98, p < 0.01), respectively.
This study suggests that plausibly, increases in social support, though slowing over time, still positively impact depressive symptoms and substance use problems among PSH residents. Future PSH programs could emphasize social support as an early component as it may contribute to clients' overall health.
社会支持是预防抑郁症状和物质使用问题的已知保护因素，但很少有研究调查其对有长期无家可归史的永久性支持性住房（PSH）居民的保护作用。我们利用无条件潜在增长曲线模型（LGCM）和并行进程增长模型来描述社会支持、抑郁症状和物质使用问题的单变量轨迹，并在一个居住在 PSH 的大量成年人样本中检验它们的纵向关联。
参与者是北德克萨斯州的 653 名成年 PSH 居民（56%为女性；57%为黑人；平均年龄：51 岁），他们参加了 2014 年至 2017 年的每月健康辅导计划。他们的健康行为在基线时进行评估，并在三次随访中每六个月跟踪一次。
无条件 LGCM 表明，随着时间的推移，社会支持增加，而抑郁症状和物质使用问题减少。然而，它们的变化率随着时间的推移而减缓。此外，在并行进程增长模型中，我们发现，在基线时，社会支持较强的个体往往抑郁症状和物质使用问题较轻（系数：-0.67，p<0.01；-0.52，p<0.01，分别）。社会支持增长较快的个体，抑郁症状（系数：-0.99，p<0.01）和物质使用问题（系数：-0.98，p<0.01）的下降速度也较快。
这项研究表明，随着时间的推移，社会支持的增加虽然有所放缓，但仍对 PSH 居民的抑郁症状和物质使用问题产生积极影响。未来的 PSH 计划可以强调社会支持作为早期组成部分，因为它可能有助于客户的整体健康。
