The Association Between Social Relationship Quality and Subjective Cognition in Women Experiencing Homelessness and Precarious Housing

Abstract

Research shows that People Experiencing Homelessness and Precarious Housing (PEHPH) have low-quality social relationships, which are linked to limited social networks, elevated emotional distress, and poorer subjective cognition. While women’s experiences differ from men’s, they remain understudied in this population. The present research examined whether associations between social relationship quality and social networks, emotional distress, and subjective cognition differ between women (n = 46) and men (n = 53) among PEHPH. The WHOQOL-BREF measured social relationship quality, the LSNS assessed social networks, the HADS measured emotional distress, and the PROMIS assessed subjective cognition. Linear regressions analyzed associations and gender differences, and simple slopes analyses probed interactions. The key finding is that higher-quality social relationships are associated with better subjective cognition among women. For both genders, higher-quality social relationships are linked to larger networks and less emotional distress. Among PEHPH, bolstering subjective cognition may enhance women’s social relationship quality.