Neuro-cognition and social cognition elements of social functioning and social quality of life

Previous studies have shown that deficits in social cognition mediate the association between neuro-cognition and functional outcome. Based on these findings, the current study presents an examination of the mediating role of social cognition and includes two different outcomes: social functioning assessed by objective observer and social quality of life assessed by subjective self-report. Instruments measuring different aspects of social cognition, cognitive ability, social functioning and social quality of life were administered to 131 participants who had a diagnosis of a serious mental illness. Results showed that emotion recognition and attributional bias were significant mediators such that cognitive assessment was positively related to both, which in turn, were negatively related to SQoL. While one interpretation of the data suggests that deficits in emotion recognition may serve as a possible defense mechanism, future studies should re-assess this idea. •People with SMI experience significant impairments in social functioning and SQoL.•Neuro-cognition and social cognition are related to these social outcomes.•Attributional bias mediated the association between neuro-cognition and outcome.•Emotion recognition mediate neuro-cognition and SQoL with the unexpected finding of negative association between emotion recognition and outcome.