Jingyi Feng,1,2 Conglin Du,3 Yanling Xiao,1 Jie Liu,4 Qiuxia Chen,1 Yaping Liu,1 Zhixia Zhang1 

1Nursing Department, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Nursing Research, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, School of Medicine,Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Urology, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 4Trauma Surgery, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Yaping Liu; Zhixia Zhang, Nursing Department, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China, Email bzmulyp@126.com; zzx13476805827@126.com

Purpose: In this study, dyadic analysis was used to explore the dyadic effect of stigma on resilience and whether self-compassion plays a mediating role in the dyadic relationship between schizophrenia patients and primary caregivers during recovery.
Methods: A total of 210 patients with schizophrenia and their primary caregivers from a tertiary hospital in Hubei Province were selected as the research objects by convenience sampling method. The investigation was conducted with the General Information Questionnaire, Stigma Scale, Self-Compassion Scale and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.
Results: This study found that the mental illness stigma of patients with schizophrenia at the recovery stage was negatively correlated with their self-compassion and resilience, as well as the self-compassion and resilience of their primary caregivers (r=− 0.644, − 0.653, − 0.431, − 0.362, all P< 0.05). The mental illness stigma of primary caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in recovery period was negatively correlated with self-compassion and psychological resilience, and self-compassion and psychological resilience of patients (r=− 0.291, − 0.430, − 0.375, − 0.282, all P< 0.05). The study found that the mental illness stigma of schizophrenia patients and their primary caregivers had a significant subjective impact on their resilience. The stigma of schizophrenia convalescence patients and their primary caregivers has a significant indirect effect on each other’s psychological resilience through self-compassion.
Conclusion: This study found that stigma not only directly affects the resilience of patients with schizophrenia and their primary caregivers, but also plays a mediating role in the resilience of patients themselves and their caregivers through self-compassion. It is recommended that medical staff carry out intervention based on dyadic perspective to help patients and their caregivers improve their ability to recover from difficulties, adapt and grow from adversity and crisis, attach importance to and promote the close relationship and positive interaction between them, so as to jointly cope with disease challenges and help patients return to society.

Keywords: schizophrenia, caregiver, stigma, resilience, self-compassion, actor-partner interdependence model