Social correlates of competitive employment among people with severe mental illness

Observations derived from three ethnographic studies address important questions concerning characteristics of clients' sociocultural backgrounds. Knowledgeable use of the latter enhance the effectiveness of efforts to secure and support competitive employment for those with severe mental illness. Data from three ethnographies were recast as short profile sketches in summated rating scales. Rank, correlations between scale sums and study participants' propensity to look for and/or to obtain competitive employment proved highly significant in three small, but very different, samples of clients. The correlatives of work search or retention are: 1) valuing and hoping for maintenance of one's mental and physical functioning with professional help; 2) belonging to, and actively participating in, functional social groupings: family, friendship networks, gangs, voluntary associations, or the workplace itself; and 3) the absence of unrelenting dire poverty.