The temporal relationships between social motivation and social interactions in people with serious mental illness and recent homelessness

People with serious mental illness (SMI) and those who have experienced homelessness have disrupted social functioning. A primary obstacle to successful social functioning is building and maintaining meaningful social connections, which may depend on individuals’ motivation to engage in social interactions. We examined the temporal, bidirectional relationships between social approach and avoidance motivation and social interactions over time using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Twenty-nine participants with SMI and a history of homelessness answered EMA surveys of momentary social interaction, social approach motivation, and social avoidance motivation for seven days. The temporal relationships between these variables were analyzed as a dynamical system using continuous-time vector auto-regressive models. Three main findings emerged. First, social approach motivation positively influenced future social interactions more than social avoidance motivation. Second, social avoidance motivation also led to more future social interactions. Third, the number of social interactions positively influenced both social approach and avoidance motivation, with a slightly larger effect on social approach. The current study highlights the utility of examining social motivation and social interactions as a dynamical system, which could be useful for better understanding impairments in social functioning. Possibilities for interventions are also discussed.