Relatedness & connectedness of young people recovering from psychosis.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Relatedness and connectedness: An exploration of how the relationships of young people may influence their recovery from psychosis.
IRAS ID
218766
Contact name
Amy Symonds
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The British Psychological Society (2014) estimate that around a million people in the United Kingdom have a psychiatric diagnosis which is likely to include symptoms of psychosis. The typical age of onset for psychosis is late adolescence and early adulthood (Gogtay et al., 2011).
Research has shown that social relationships can impact both positively and negatively upon mental health (e.g. Green et al., 2002), whilst a review of related literaure (Tew, 2011) suggests that relationships are “vital” to recovery. Family, friends and carers of people with psychosis are held to be important in the long-term recovery process (NICE, 2014).
Little research has explored how young people with psychosis have made meaning of their relationships with others, how these relationships may have influenced the recovery process, and how these relationships may have changed and been utilised differently over time.
The current study aims to invite 8-10 young adults who have recovered from psychosis or are in the process of recovery to take part in two interviews. The first interview will invite the young person to retrospectively talk about their experiences of their relationships whilst they were unwell, in particular inviting the young person to talk about their relatedness and connectedness to others. Participants will also be invited to produce a visual map of the people in their lives when they were unwell, to facilitate discussion. The second interview will follow a similar procedure, however will focus on the young person’s relationships since the young person has been in recovery, to enable exploration of the temporal aspects of relationships.
Interviews will be transcribed and analysed using a method called Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), to identify key themes within the experiences of the young people in relation to their relationships whilst experiencing psychosis. A report will be written detailing key findings from the interviews and relational mapping relating to the research aims.
By exploring how young people who are in recovery from psychosis experienced their relationships with others during the time they were unwell, and during their recovery, it is hoped that the current study will add to the literature in developing a greater understanding of how others may be of support.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0141
Date of REC Opinion
31 May 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion