Social support is a well-known protective factor against depressive symptoms and substance use problems, but very few studies have examined its protective effects among residents of permanent supportive housing (PSH), a housing program for people with a history of chronic homelessness. We utilized unconditional latent growth curve models (LGCMs) and parallel process growth models to describe univariate trajectories of social support, depressive symptoms, and substance use problems and to examine their longitudinal associations in a large sample of adults residing in PSH. Participants were 653 adult PSH residents in North Texas (56% female; 57% Black; mean age: 51 years) who participated in a monthly health coaching program from 2014 to 2017. Their health behaviors were assessed at baseline and tracked every six months at three follow-up visits. Unconditional LGCMs indicated that over time, social support increased, whereas depressive symptoms and substance use problems decreased. However, their rates of change slowed over time. Further, in parallel process growth models, we found that at baseline, individuals with greater social support tended to have less severe depressive symptoms and substance use problems (coefficients: − 0.67, p < 0.01; − 0.52, p < 0.01, respectively). Individuals with a faster increase in social support tended to have steeper rates of reduction in both depressive symptoms (coefficient: − 0.99, p < 0.01) and substance use problems (coefficient: − 0.98, p < 0.01), respectively. This study suggests that plausibly, increases in social support, though slowing over time, still positively impact depressive symptoms and substance use problems among PSH residents. Future PSH programs could emphasize social support as an early component as it may contribute to clients’ overall health.

中文翻译：

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一项为期18个月的纵向研究表明，成年人在永久性支持性住房中，社会支持的增加与抑郁症状和吸毒问题的减少同时发生

社会支持是防止抑郁症状和药物滥用问题的众所周知的保护因素，但是很少有研究检查其对永久支持性住房（PSH）居民的保护作用，PSH是针对有长期无家可归史的人的住房计划。我们利用无条件的潜在增长曲线模型（LGCM）和并行过程增长模型来描述社会支持，抑郁症状和药物使用问题的单变量轨迹，并在居住在PSH中的大量成年人中检查其纵向关联。参与者为北得克萨斯州的653位成人PSH居民（女性56％；黑人57％；平均年龄：51岁），他们参加了2014年至2017年的每月健康教练计划。他们的健康行为在基线进行评估，并在每6个月进行跟踪三个后续访问。无条件LGCM表示，随着时间的流逝，社会支持增加，而抑郁症状和药物滥用问题减少。但是，随着时间的推移，它们的变化速度变慢了。此外，在平行过程增长模型中，我们发现，在基线时，具有较大社会支持的个体倾向于没有较严重的抑郁症状和药物滥用问题（系数分别为-0.67，p <0.01；-0.52，p <0.01）。社会支持增加更快的人在抑郁症状（系数：-0.99，p <0.01）和物质使用问题（系数：-0.98，p <0.01）上的缓解率趋于陡峭。这项研究表明，尽管随着时间的流逝，社会支持的增加似乎是合理的，仍然对PSH居民的抑郁症状和物质使用问题产生积极影响。未来的PSH计划可能会强调社会支持作为早期组成部分，因为它可能有助于客户的整体健康。