Abstract
Objective
To examine the relevance of social skills and their different dimensions (ie, expressivity,
sensitivity, control) in relation to social support, depression, participation, and
quality of life (QOL) in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design
Cross-sectional data collection within the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort.
Setting
Community-based.
Participants
Individuals with SCI (N=503).
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Depression, participation, and QOL were measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression
Scale, the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation-Participation, and 5 selected
items of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. The Social Skills Inventory
and the Social Support Questionnaire were used to assess social skills (expressivity,
sensitivity, control) and social support, respectively.
Results
Structural equation modeling was conducted. In model 1 (χ2=27.81; df=19; P=.087; root mean square error of approximation=.033; 90% confidence interval=.000–.052),
social skills as a latent variable was related to social support (β=.31; R2=.10), depression (β=−.31; total R2=.42), and QOL (β=.46; R2=.25). Social support partially mediated the effect of social skills on QOL (indirect
effect: β=.04; P=.02) but not on depression or participation. In model 2 (χ2=27.96; df=19; P=.084; root mean square error of approximation=.031; 90% confidence interval=.000–.053),
the social skills dimension expressivity showed a path coefficient of β=.20 to social
support and β=.18 to QOL. Sensitivity showed a negative path coefficient to QOL (β=−.15)
and control a path coefficient of β=−.15 to depression and β=.24 to QOL.
Conclusions
Social skills are a resource related to more social support, lower depression scores,
and higher QOL.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
HADS-D (depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), QOL (quality of life), RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation), SCI (spinal cord injury), SSI (Social Skills Inventory), SwiSCI (Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 25, 2014
Footnotes
Supported by the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation in the framework of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI).
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
