Page 53 - JCBP-1-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Wisdom in mentally ill and healthy

Table 2. Characteristics of persons with and without chronic mental health problems from a German representative sample
Characteristics All With chronic mental Without chronic P-value in group
(N=2505) health problem mental health problem comparison
(N=331; 13.2%) (N=2174; 86.6%)
Sex <0.001
Male 49.1% 35.0% 51.2%
Diverse 0.1% 0.3% 0.1%
Female 50.8% 64.7% 48.7%
Age in years 49.48 (17.80) 51.12 (17.27) 49.24 (17.88) 0.074
Education (A-levels) 22.5% 28.7% 21.6% 0.004
Times of being unemployed during one´s life 0.99 (1.60) 1.59 (1.94) 0.90 (1.53) <0.001
Never have been unemployed 55.0% 37.1% 57.8%
Personal monthly income in € <0.001
No own income 5.0% 4.3% 5.1%
<1500 €/$ 44.1% 57.4% 52.1%
>1500 €/$ 50.9% 38.3% 52.9%
Number of persons living in the household 2.12 (1.12) 2.00 (1.20) 2.14 (1.10) 0.039
Single household 34.3% 43.5% 32.9%
Town size (number of inhabitants) 0.218
<2000 9.4% 7.6% 9.7%
2000 – 20000 32.5% 32.1% 32.5%
20000 – 100000 24.0% 25.7% 23.8%
100000 – 500000 16.2% 13.9% 16.6%
>500000 18.0% 20.8% 17.5%
Affiliation to religious denomination 69.7% 68.5% 69.9% 0.618
Note: Data are expressed as either percentages or means (standard deviation), and results of group comparison are shown (χ test or t-test, N=2505).
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than the mentally healthy in nine out of twelve wisdom 3.2. Ranking of wisdom capacities
capacities, i.e., problem solving, contextualism, perspective The ranking of wisdom capacities was similar in both
change, problem and self-relativization, self-distancing, groups (Table 3 and Figure 1): Highest rating was found
emotional composure, uncertainty tolerance, and in the wisdom dimension value relativism (M = 8.55,
sustainability. Both groups had similar ratings for value M = 8.72, Table 3 and Figure 1), followed by emotion
MH
relativism and emotion acceptance (Table 3). H
acceptance (M = 8.01, M = 8.09), problem relativization
H
MH
Considering chronic physical illness and chronic mental (M = 7.73, M = 8.34), and factual and procedural
H
MH
health problem together, 5.2% of the whole sample were knowledge (M = 7.14, M = 8.31). Comparably lower
H
MH
affected by both (MP), 78.2% had no health problem (NN), rating was given to the wisdom capacities sustainability
8.0% had mental health problems only (M), and 8.6% had (M = 5.38, M = 6.83.), uncertainty tolerance
H
MH
physical health problem only (P). Global wisdom score was (M = 6.16, M = 7.15), empathy (M MH = 6.88, M = 7.20),
MH
H
H
highest in NN (M = 7.73, SD = 1.37), followed by P (M = 7.28, and self-relativization (M MH = 6.81, M = 7.33) (Table 3).
H
SD = 1.44), whereas participants with mental health problems In terms of categorical presentation (Figure 1), more than
had lower global wisdom scores (MP: M = 6.99, SD = 1.53; 95% of all participants scored high or moderate in value
M: M = 6.99, SD = 1.33; ANOVA P < 0.001). relativism and emotion acceptance, with no differences
Considering the potential impact of age on wisdom, between persons with and without chronic mental
the correlation between these two variables was calculated. health problems. A portion of the people with chronic
There was no correlation between age and global wisdom mental health problems had low ratings on certain
score (r = 0.035, Spearman’s correlation; r = 0.053 in wisdom capacities, that is, sustainability (35%), tolerance
participants with mental health problem, r = 0.039 in of uncertainty (26%), and perspective change (23%)
participants without mental health problem). (Figure 1).
Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.0945