Generativity among persons providing or receiving peer or mutual support: A scoping review.

Abstract

Objective: People with lived experience of mental illness or distress can help others recover through peer or mutual support. One way they may help others recover is by fostering generativity, which refers to one's concern for and contributions toward the betterment of others, including future generations (e.g., through caregiving, engaging in civics). Generativity may add purpose to one's life, benefit society, and improve areas which persons with lived experience feel are important for their recovery. Despite its importance, the state of knowledge on experiences and facilitators of generativity, as well as the impact that engaging in generativity has on the lives of persons engaged in peer or mutual support, is unclear. Method: A librarianassisted scoping review of the literature was conducted in five steps: identifying the research question and relevance; selecting studies; charting data; and coding and summarizing the results. Results: Out of 11,862 articles that were screened, only 18 met eligibility criteria. Most studies were conducted in the United States and included White/Caucasian participants. Our synthesis produced themes related to generative actions, which included helping others, changing organizations and systems, and sharing personal stories. Themes describing facilitators of generativity included individual-level and organizational-level factors. One theme reflecting the positive psychosocial impact of engaging in generativity was produced. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Findings from this study point to several knowledge gaps to be investigated in future research and can facilitate the implementation of peer support initiatives aimed at fostering generativity, which may in turn promote recovery. Impact and ImplicationsThis review revealed that peer and mutual support for persons with mental health challenges may help foster generativity (e.g., the contributions people make to other people), which may in turn support recovery. This review also identified several knowledge gaps that should be addressed in future research. The findings point to gaps in knowledge on a concept that can help persons more fully recover from their challenges.

The effects of peer inclusion in the design and implementation of university prison programming: A participatory action research, randomized vignette study.

“…We created the vignette to manipulate who “designs and teaches” the program based on the recommendations of our incarcerated coresearchers, but based on our coresearchers interpretations of our results, we believe a critical next step for future research is to separate out the effects of designing from teaching when it comes to the delivery of programs in prison. Finally, our focus here was on potential recipients of combined programming; the women who codesign and coteach that programming are likely to experience positive outcomes as a result of their involvement (Jordan et al, 2022; Thrasher et al, 2019).…”

Generativity among people with lived experience of mental illness and distress.

“…Interventions should be developed to support generativity both within clinical and community settings. Findings from our scoping review suggest that receiving or providing peer or mutual support may facilitate generativity (Jordan et al, 2021). Generativity may also be facilitated by interventions that support people’s sense of citizenship, defined as a person’s access to the rights (e.g., freedom to wear a religious symbol at work), responsibilities (i.e., actions that are important to people), roles (i.e., positions occupied in society), and resources (e.g., housing) needed to live a full and meaningful life; as well as relationships that promote a socially validated sense of belonging (Rowe & Pelletier, 2012).…”

“…In addition, the first author engaged in reflexive practice by examining how his own experiences and “multiple brought selves” shaped and coconstructed the findings (Reinharz, 1997). The study team also engaged in reflexive practice by being aware of findings from their scoping review on generativity among people with mental illness that was recently conducted (Jordan et al, 2021); their experiences as researchers, clinicians, and people who have provided peer support; as well as theoretical work on generativity, recovery, and posttraumatic growth (Braun & Clarke, 2006).…”

“…One meaningful way that people can support their recovery is by giving back to others. In addition to working in peer support roles (Bellamy et al, 2012; Zemore & Pagano, 2008), people with lived experience of mental illness or distress give back and make important contributions to their communities and society in a variety of ways (Aschbrenner et al, 2010; Davidson et al, 2005; Greenberg et al, 1994; Haselden et al, 2018; Honey et al, 2020; Jordan et al, 2021). By giving back and helping others, people with lived experiences of mental illness or distress may develop self-worth and realize that they have something to offer the world (Davidson, 2020).…”

“…One quantitative study employing a secondary analysis of the impact of helping behaviors among people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia revealed that engaging in such behavior had a positive impact on people’s own sense of recovery (Firmin et al, 2015). A recent scoping review (Jordan et al, 2021) identified two qualitative studies which showed how providing peer support led participants to experience an enhanced sense of generativity (Moran, Russinova, Gidugu, et al, 2012; Russo-Netzer & Moran, 2018), and one quantitative study which revealed that peer support workers employed within a peer-run mental health service experienced an enhanced sense of generativity compared to those providing peer support within a conventional mental health service (Moran, Russinova, & Stepas, 2012). Findings from this scoping review also revealed that most studies have investigated generativity among largely White and female samples, pointing to a need for research about generativity among people from other backgrounds, who are typically underrepresented in research.…”