Recent Daily Life Functioning in Mental Health, Treatment-Seeking, Adult Consumers in One Rural, Community-Based, Outpatient Clinic: Role of Social Support

Background and Purpose: Social support is critical to daily life functioning, particularly for those experiencing mental health difficulties in population-dispersed, rural areas. However, the role of social support in daily life functioning in service-seeking consumers in rural communities has been understudied. Daily life functioning is defined as an individual’s ability to deal with common, everyday problems (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2021). Using SAMSHA National Outcome Measures’ survey data from one rural, county mental health clinic in a northeastern state, this study investigated the role of social support in recent daily life functioning (i.e., daily life functioning within the last 30 days) for treatment-seeking adult consumers.

Methods: Consumers were adults who sought mental health treatment services between June 2020 and August 2022 (n=1644). The majority of consumers were white (88.8%), non-Hispanic (88.5%), straight (86.1%) women (50.6%). On average, consumers were in middle adulthood (M=37.16 years, SD=13.73 years). Measures included the recent daily life functioning scale (7 items, α=.835) and the social support scale (8 items, α=.845). Ordinary least squares multiple regression was used to develop a statistically significant model of social support’s role in consumer’s recent daily functioning while also controlling for demographic characteristics statistically significantly associated recent daily life functioning.

Results: On average, treatment-seeking consumers reported moderately-high levels of recent daily life functioning (M=3.65 out of 5.00). Recent daily life functioning was correlated with perceptions of social support (r=.596, p<.001). Concerning demographic characteristics, gender identity (F(3,1016)=11.284, p<.001) and sexual identity (F(3,968), p<.001) demonstrated statistically significant main effects on recent daily life functioning. Racial identity and Hispanic ethnicity were not statistically significantly associated with recent daily life functioning. Age was correlated with daily life functioning (r=.120, p<.001). Controlling for gender identity, sexual identity, and age, regression results indicate a statistically significant model of recent daily life functioning (F(8,926), p<.001, R²=.374). Social support was statistically significantly associated with recent daily life functioning within the regression model (b=.569, p=.021).

Conclusions and Implications: These results suggest that social support is an important factor in recent daily life functioning for the rural, treatment-seeking, adult mental health consumers in this study. Higher levels of social support may provide instrumental and emotional buffering for daily life functioning difficulties. Rural, mental health clinics may want to rapidly link treatment-seeking consumers to peer services to enhance social support, particularly for consumers who present with impaired recent daily life functioning. Similarly, triaging consumers with case management services may be beneficial. Case management services could work with these consumers to link them to social support resources. To contribute to theory, future research should replicate this study with a larger, multisite, random sample of treatment-seeking mental health consumers in urban, suburban, and rural settings.