ArticleBMC psychiatry2022
The structure of social support: a multilevel analysis of the personal networks of people with severe mental disorders.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Informal Caregivers As True Partners In Mental Health Recovery: Is It Time For A Complete Rewrite?Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2026Article
- Relationship between neuropsychiatric symptoms and social support in older adults with mild behavioral impairment: a moderated mediation model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Access and barriers to reproductive mental health services. A mixed-methods examination of self-stigmatization, help-seeking motivation and experiences with primary or reproductive healthcare professionals.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFor psychiatric service users suffering from severe mental disorders, the social support provided by personal social networks is essential for living a meaningful life within the community. However, the importance of the support received depend on the relations between the providers of social support. Yet this hasn't been addressed in the literature so far for people with severe mental disorders. This article seeks to investigate how characteristics of service users with severe mental disorders, their social contacts, and the pattern of relationships between those contacts influence the distribution and provision of social support to people with severe mental disorders.
methodsWe collected personal network data relating to 380 psychiatric service users from a random sample of health care providers in Belgium. We computed various measures of the structure of those networks and of the position of support persons within those networks. We conducted a multilevel analysis of the importance of the support provided by each support persons.
resultsThe results show that the more central a support person was in the network of a service user, the more important his or her support was considered to be by the service user. Also, the denser the network in which a support person was embedded, the less important was the support he or she offers, but only for hospitalised service users.
conclusionThese finding highlight the collective dimension of social support. We discuss the implications for the organisation of mental health care.
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Registered trials
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