PERCIEVED SOCIAL SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS IN NEVER MARRIED WOMEN

Abstract

The study aims to explore the relationships between perceived social support, mental health, and mental illness among never-married women. Based on an extensive literature review, several hypotheses were proposed. 1) There would likely be a relationship between perceived social support, mental health and mental illness in never-married women.  2) There would likely be a relationship between perceived social support (friends and family) and emotional, social and psychological wellbeing among never-married women. 3) There would likely be a relationship between perceived social support (support from friends and family) with somatic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression. 4) The level of perceived social support predicts emotional, social and psychological wellbeing in never married women. 5) The level of perceived social support predicts the somatic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression in never married women. The sample size of the research was (n=150) never married women and age range of the participants was (35-45) years. The minimum level of education was graduation residing in nuclear and joint family system were included in the study. Working and non-working women both were included the study. Purposive sampling and Snowball sampling was used to collect the sample. Manual and online method was used. The instruments that were used in the present study were Polish versions of General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28; Goldberg and Hillier 1979), Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC–SF; Keyes 20090) and perceived social support from friends (PSS-Fr Procidano & Heller‚ 1983) and from family (PSS-Fa Procidano & Heller‚ 1983). The findings reveal there is significant positive relationship (r=.536***, p<.001) between perceived social support and mental health, as well as a significant negative relationship (r=-0.397***, p<.001) between perceived social support and mental illness. The study highlights that perceived social support has a positive relationship with the subscales of mental health and negative associations with the subscales of mental illness. Moreover, the results indicate that the level of perceived social support is a predictor of both mental health (β= .531, p<.001) and mental illness (β= -.391, p<.001) among never-married women. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the critical role of perceived social support of friends and family in influencing both mental health and mental illness among never-married women.