Social rituals as an early indicator of mental illness

Abstract

Introduction

Social rituals refer to routine and expected social activities that are practiced in all communities in a culturally recognized manner (e.g., social greetings, eating customs, attention to dress, sleeping rituals etc.). Persistent departures from or disregard of these social rituals may be an early or prodromal sign of the onset of mental illness.

Objectives

(1) To develop and evaluate psychometric properties of a measure of social rituals entitled, Social Rituals Schedule (SRS); (2) to evaluate the reliability and cross-cultural applicability of this measure.

Methods

The SRS was administered to 30 psychiatric patients and their nominated relative/friend. The cross-cultural evaluations were conducted using focus groups of Ethiopian (n = 30), Australian Indigenous (n = 100), Iranian (n = 22), and Indian (n = 50) participants.

Results

The SRS demonstrated moderate to high inter-rater reliability and patient-informant concordance. The social ritual domains were found to be valid, well understood and applicable across the sampled cultures [1].

Conclusions

The concept of social rituals and the SRS instrument were demonstrated to be feasible, reliable and cross-culturally applicable tools for measuring changes in people's appearance and behavior that might be indicative of emerging mental illness.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.