Social Support as Leverage? A Quantitative Study of Social Support as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Disability/Activity Limitations and Psychological Distress Among Young Adults in Ghana
Loading...
Files
Size: 1.69 MB, File format: Adobe PDF
Date
Authors
Miezah, D
Opoku, MP
Kumi, EO
Gyimah, EM
Supervisor
Item type
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC
Abstract
Background: Research has shown that young adults encounter formidable barriers in their day-to-day living experiences. In particular, there is evidence that young adults are at high risk of psychological distress and facing activity limitations. This has contributed to discussions on deploying innovative measures to address challenges such as psychological distress and activity limitations, which are prevalent among young adults. However, in the Ghanaian context, although social support is engrained in local culture, its role in addressing social menace is unresearched. The overarching aim of this study was to explore the mediating role of social support in the relationship between disability/activity limitations and psychological distress among young adults in Ghana. Method: In this quantitative study, 1200 young adults completed the World Disability Assessment Schedule version 2.0, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS-21) scale. The instruments were validated by performing confirmatory factor analyses before calculating means, correlation, multiple regression and mediation analyses. Results: The findings of this study provide theoretical insight into the three scales that were completed by the young adults who participated in this study. The findings revealed moderate to strong correlations between the domains of social support, psychological distress and disability/activity limitations. Social support mediated the relationship between activity limitations and psychological distress. Conclusion: The study concludes with a recommendation for targeted training for young adults. The implications of this study for leveraging social support among young adults and other study implications are discussed in detail.
Description
Keywords
Culture, Ghana, Mental health, Social menace, Support networks, 4203 Health Services and Systems, 42 Health Sciences, Behavioral and Social Science, Depression, Pediatric Research Initiative, Social Determinants of Health, Mental Health, Brain Disorders, Clinical Research, Mental Illness, Generic health relevance, 3 Good Health and Well Being, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, Public Health, 4202 Epidemiology, 4206 Public health
Source
BMC Public Health, ISSN: 1471-2458 (Print); 1471-2458 (Online), BMC, 26(1), 1820-. doi: 10.1186/s12889-026-27464-4
Publisher's version
Rights statement
Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
