Social cognition and work performance of persons with schizophrenia in a Chinese population

BACKGROUND: Social-cognitive deficits have a significant impact on the community and vocational functioning of persons with schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between social-cognitive abilities and vocational functioning in a Chinese population. METHOD: We recruited 30 outpatients with schizophrenia to participate. We administered the Chinese Social Cognition and Screening Questionnaire (C-SCSQ) to assess Theory of Mind (ToM), attributional bias, and neurocognition; the Facial Expression Identification Test (FEIT) to assess emotion perception (EP) ability, and the Chinese Work Personality Profile (CWPP) to assess work performance in a simulated work setting. RESULTS: ToM showed a significant negative correlation with attributional bias. The neurocognitive measure displayed a significant positive correlation with ToM and EP. The structural equation model was a good fit to the data (CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.12), and showed that social-cognitive abilities had a significant impact (-0.41) on work performance. Of the four social-cognitive domains, ToM and paranoid attributional style (PAS) contributed significantly to variations in work performance. These results support the theory that social-cognitive abilities have an impact on work performance. ToM has a positive impact whereas PAS has an adverse effect. CONCLUSION: Persons with schizophrenia present specific deficits in their social-cognitive abilities, which have significant impact on their work performance and employability.