Mental health competencies are stronger determinants of well-being than mental disorder symptoms even in psychiatric samples

TL;DR

This study shows that mental health strengths are more important for well-being than mental disorder symptoms, even in people with psychiatric conditions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that mental health competencies are stronger predictors of well-being than disorder symptoms in both clinical and non-clinical samples.

Findings

Mental health competencies positively predict well-being, while disorder symptoms negatively predict it.

Mental health competencies are a stronger determinant of well-being than disorder symptoms in both psychiatric and non-clinical samples.

The interaction between mental health and disorder symptoms does not add predictive value beyond individual factors.

Abstract

Exploring the positive psychological and behavioural dimensions of people living with mental disorders can establish a firm ground in a therapeutic alliance for setting up positive life goals.

The present study aimed to explored whether the strength of the mental health capacities and the severity of mental disorder symptoms and the interaction of the two differ in the strength of their associations with several dimensions of well-being on Hungarian adult psychiatric and non-clinical community samples.

The psychiatric sample (129 patients (44 male, 85 female)) was collected in four Hungarian healthcare facilities using a cross-sectional design. The non-clinical community sample (253 adults (43 male, 210 female)) was collected online using a cross-sectional design. All the respondents completed the Mental Health Test, six well-being and mental health measures, and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised.

Including both the mental health competencies and mental disorder symptoms variables in one regression model in both samples can predict patients’ well-being even more accurately. Mental health competencies related positively; mental disorder symptoms connected negatively to subjective well-being. In all models and both samples, mental health competencies were found to be a stronger determinant of well-being than the mental disorder symptoms. The interaction of mental health functioning and mental disorders is no more predictive of well-being in either psychiatric or non-clinical samples than when the effects of each are considered separately.

The assessment of mental health competencies has an important predictive value for well-being in the presence of psychopathological symptoms and/or mental disorders.

None Declared