Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Jan 19, 2021; 11(1): 13-26
Published online Jan 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i1.13
What gets in the way of social engagement in schizophrenia?
Lauren P Weittenhiller, Megan E Mikhail, Jasmine Mote, Timothy R Campellone, Ann M Kring
Lauren P Weittenhiller, Megan E Mikhail, Jasmine Mote, Timothy R Campellone, Ann M Kring, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
Megan E Mikhail, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States
Jasmine Mote, Department of Occupational Health, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, United States
Author contributions: Mote J, Campellone TR, and Kring AM were involved in the conception of the study; Weittenhiller LP, Mikhail ME, and Kring AM contributed to the study design and coding manual development; Weittenhiller LP and Mikhail ME conducted didactic trainings and managed coding implementation; Weittenhiller LP performed the analyses and wrote the initial drafts of the manuscript with significant contributions made by Kring AM; all authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, No. 1752814.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the University of California, Berkeley Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None declared.
Data sharing statement: Data available on request from the corresponding author at lauren.weittenhiller@berkeley.edu.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lauren P Weittenhiller, MA, Academic Research, Department of Psychology, University of California, 2121 Berkeley Way No. 1650, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States. lauren.weittenhiller@berkeley.edu
Received: October 23, 2020
Peer-review started: October 23, 2020
First decision: December 4, 2020
Revised: December 16, 2020
Accepted: December 27, 2020
Article in press: December 27, 2020
Published online: January 19, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: We examined factors that may impede and promote social engagement in schizophrenia. We coded social barriers and motivations from transcribed negative symptoms interviews. We found that barriers, such as conflicts with other people or negative beliefs about the self, were prominent in schizophrenia. Interestingly, when explicitly prompted, people with schizophrenia reported interest in and motivation for social interactions. Nevertheless, social barriers may get in the way of them following through.