Accepting the mental illness label, perceived control over the illness, and quality of life

Rehabilitation literature generally encourages persons with chronic disabilities to accept their medical diagnosis as a step toward maintaining and possibly improving the quality of their lives. To investigate the manner in which the acceptance of a psychiatric label impacts upon aspects of quality of life for persons with psychiatric disabilities this study developed a comprehensive measure of the acceptance of a psychiatric label, and examined ifs relation to a multidimensional self-report measure of quality of life. IC;be possible mediating, moderating and direct effects of the rehabilitants' perceived control over their illness on their quality of life was also examined. Psychiatric self-labeling was found to be negatively related and perceived control over the illness was found to be positively related to quality of life in a number of important life areas.