Quality of relationships in social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder: findings from a nationally representative sample
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Date
2014-09-05
Authors
Hills, Amber L.
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Abstract
Research indicates that without healthy and close relationships, well-being and functioning suffer. Despite this knowledge, quality of relationships has not been emphasized in the mental health literature, especially as related to social anxiety disorder (SAD) where social support needs may be higher. The aim of this study was to examine how those with SAD compared to those with another anxiety disorder (generalized anxiety disorder; GAD), a mood disorder (major depressive disorder; MDD) and those with no recent history of disorder, on measures of quality of relationships with family, friends and partners, as well as on intimacy and role functioning. Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R; Kessler et al., 2004), a large, U.S. nationally-representative epidemiological data set. Logistic regressions were used to examine the quality of relationships for those with SAD as compared to GAD, MDD and no disorder. The associations among relationship quality and high versus low severity of SAD were also examined. It was found that those with SAD were less likely to report high family and friend support than were those with no disorder, but more likely to report high marital support than those with GAD or MDD. Those with SAD were more likely to report high family stress than those with no disorder, but no more likely to report relationship stress than were the other clinical groups. With respect to severity of SAD, those with high SAD severity were more likely to report high friendship stress than those with low SAD severity. In examining role impairment, those with SAD were less likely to report social impairment than those with GAD or MDD, and less likely to report close relationship impairment than those with MDD. Those with high SAD severity reported higher impairment across social and close relationship functioning compared to those with low severity. This study redresses many of the limitations in the current literature, and the results inform future research efforts on treatment practices and prevention.
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Keywords
Social Anxiety Disorder, Relationships, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder