The editors and contributing authors have written a book which is devoted to exploring the nature of social functioning in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Social functioning or social adjustment are general terms used to refer to how individuals meet defined roles as homemaker, worker, family member, student, spouse, or friend. In addition to role functioning, individuals’ satisfaction with their ability to meet these roles, their ability to care for themselves, and the extent of their leisure and recreational activities are often subsumed under the rubric of social functioning.

While impairments in social functioning are widely accepted to be of crucial importance to understanding and treating schizophrenia, few volumes have focused on summarizing the progress made in this area. This book is aimed at exploring the nature of social functioning in schizophrenia which includes recent advances in the measurement of social adjustment and related concepts, developmental course, clinical and demographic correlates, social functioning in specific subgroups of patients, and the effects of psycho-social and pharmacological treatments on social adjustment.