No evidence that implicit identification with mental illness predicts recovery

• Published in: British journal of clinical psychology Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 530 - 545
• Main Authors: von Hippel, Courtney, Brener, Loren, Rose, Grenville, Kjelsaas, Kathleen, von Hippel, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-11-2021
• Subjects: community mental health; Community Mental Health Services; Health research; Humans; IAT; Identification; Illnesses; implicit identification; Life satisfaction; Mental Disorders; Mental Health; Mental health care; Optimism; Recovery; Support workers; Symptoms; Time; well‐being; well-being; recovery; implicit identification; community mental health; IAT
• ISSN: 0144-6657; 2044-8260
• DOI: 10.1111/bjc.12312

Objectives
Recovery from mental illness is multiply‐determined, but one factor that has been proposed to influence recovery is the degree to which the person identifies as someone with a mental illness. This study examines the relationship between implicit identification with being mentally unwell and recovery among clients of a community mental health service. A multi‐faceted view of recovery was adopted.
Methods
A longitudinal design was used to assess implicit identification with mental illness and its relationship to recovery, including symptom severity, well‐being, life satisfaction, and optimism, which were supplemented with ratings by both support workers and the research assistants who conducted the study. Participants were 216 community mental health care clients, with 150 retested at Time 2, and 100 retested at Time 3.
Results
Implicit identification with mental illness was correlated with recovery at Time 1 and Time 3, though this relationship did not emerge at Time 2. Cross‐lag regression analyses failed to reveal evidence that implicit identification with mental illness predicts subsequent recovery.
Conclusions
The current research suggests that implicit identification with mental illness can be considered a marker of ongoing recovery, but is not predictive of subsequent recovery. Hence, these data suggest that implicit identification with mental illness is unlikely to play an independent role in the recovery process.
Practitioner points
Research regarding the mental health consequences of implicit identification focuses on symptomatology.
Recovery is more than a reduction in symptoms, however, and thus, a broader conceptualization of recovery was examined.
Implicit identification with being mentally unwell was associated with poorer recovery broadly operationalized, but did not predict subsequent recovery.