title: Social cognition, social competence, negative symptoms and social outcomes: Inter-relationships in people with schizophrenia.
abstract: Social deficits are common in people with schizophrenia and the treatment of deficits in social competence has been a long-time treatment strategy. However, negative symptoms and social cognitive deficits also contribute to social dysfunction. In this study, we examined the correlations between everyday social outcomes, a performance based measure of social competence, and performance on 8 different social cognition tests in 179 patients with schizophrenia. Social cognition, social competence, and motivation-related negative symptoms accounted for 32% of the variance in real-world social outcomes. In addition, two different social cognition tests, along with expression-related negative symptoms accounted for 32% of the variance in performance-based assessments of social competence. These data suggest that negative symptoms exert an important influence on social outcomes and social competence, but not social cognition, and that social cognition and social competence exert separable influences on real-world social outcomes. Improving social outcomes seems to require a multi-faceted approach which considers social cognition, social competence, and negative symptoms.
authors.affiliation: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kalin
authors.affiliation: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.affiliation: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Felicia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Dallas, USA; The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Pinkham
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, USA; Australian Catholic University, Australia.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Penn
authors.affiliation: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA; Research Service, Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center, Miami, FL, USA. Electronic address: philipdharvey1@cs.com.
authors.forename: Philip D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Harvey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012938:Social Perception; D066107:Social Skills
keywords: Negative symptoms; Schizophrenia; Social cognition; Social competence; Social functioning