SOCI 3338: Family Problems

Impact of Parents Mental Health on Childrens Mental Health and Socialization

Anna Cadriel
March 12, 2015

Programs dealing with mental health have been rising due to the level of knowledge of
this issue in our communities. A big part of the communities in our cities are families and as
studies show, there has been an increase of mental health diagnoses within families. While much
of the research that has been conducted is focused on the children diagnosed with a mental health
problem and the effects on their parents and how they adjust to their situation, little research has
been found on parents with mental illness. Parents are the key to their childrens socialization so
what happens when that growth is intercepted by the parents being diagnosed with a mental
illness? This paper is going to focus on how children adapt to their parents mental illness, the
effects on the childrens own mental health, childrens relationship with their parents as they
grow up, and how parents themselves cope with having to raise children while having a mental
health illness.
When a parent is diagnosed with a mental illness, the whole system of the family shifts
and everybody has to assume complete new roles or even new views of what a family is.
Adapting to a new family routine can be extremely difficult and can have both positive and
negative consequences. In one study, children tend have more negative experience trying to
modify their lives to coincide with their parents illness compared to families whose parents are
mentally healthy (Cox and Pakenham 2014), which can increase the risk of the children
experiencing mental health issues themselves. A good rhythm for children, for example, during
the week would be preparing for school, going to school, going back home, doing homework,
interacting with their parent(s), dinner, bed, and repeat. If, in case, they experience their parent
having a break down, it can disrupt their whole routine, thus creating a dent in their relationship
with the parent and also keep them from working their daily activities (Hall and Mordoch 2008).
Negative adjustment out comes can also be controlled by correctly educating children about their

parents condition which also helps to understand them and create less friction within their
relationships (Hall and Mordoch 2008). This can also help the child adjust better to their new
rhythm. Children will always try to connect with a parent no matter their parents mental state
but maintaining a good routine within the family and a good distance from any visual outburst
due to the illness is always very healthy and helpful to the children (Hall and Mordoch 2008).
Finding a routine and adhering to it can really make a significant difference in the childs life.
As previously stated, adjusting to a new family system can negatively impact offspring
including their mental health. Having a rhythm can be a positive influence but also it can only
cause more pressure on the offspring. Hall and Mordoch (2008) gave an example where children
can be afraid of returning home after a positive routine at school, only to find their parents in the
middle of a suicide attempt, which also leads to increased feelings of frustration. If there is a
poor emotional connection or any type of strain between child and parent, and the child can also
be at a higher risk of having mental health issues of their own compared to children with non-ill
parents (Cox and Pakenham 2014). Parents with mental illness had a difficulty trying to express
feelings and opinions (Hosman et al. 2014), which can be a contributor to depression within
adolescents because they feel as if they are not receiving the attention nor love they need. In one
of the studies, they interviewed adolescents and children about their experience living with their
parents and dealing with their mental illness and one of the older children expressed their
frustration, I didnt know what to do. I wanted to talk to someone, I was scared. I wanted to help
her and I wanted to help me (Hall and Mordoch 2008:1140). Repeated occurrences like the
previous one, can greatly push an offspring over the edge. These type of emotions can be very
heavy on an adolescents mind since they did not have the people who would ideally teach them
how to deal with their feelings. Children also tend to have less parental supervision and guidance

due to their parents mental health or the fact that they might only live with one parent, or people
other than their parents (Hosman et al. 2014). During this lack of supervision, children and
teenagers have an opportunity to try and find comfort in other places that can be harmful in
short- or long-term occurrences. Children can be vulnerable to other adults who can abuse them,
susceptible to chemical solutions that make them forget, and other forms of social
organization, like gangs, that can get them involved in crimes, just to feel as if they are filling in
the void they cannot fill without their parents.
Many of the older children or adult children, take on the role of caregivers for their
parents and that can have consequences towards their relationship with their parents as well. A
study was conducted where they evaluated adult children of mothers with mental illnesses and
their caregiving levels towards them (Abraham and Stein 2012). The adult children in this study
reported significantly higher lower levels of affection, felt obligation, and reciprocity, and
significantly higher levels of role reversal (Abraham and Stein 2012:545) compared to adult
children in the study with parents without mental illnesses. This can be due to the fact they might
feel as if they already have gone through enough trauma with their parents and they often have
to assume the role of adult when it came to responsibility toward their parents and themselves.
Abraham and Stein (2012) also stated that one of the factors that can contribute to adult
childrens ideas of caregiving towards their mothers is their college level education, and they feel
the need to figure out their own futures. Having to be dependent on your children, can have
certain effect on parents with mental illness.
Parents with mental illnesses encounter a notion of not being accepted into society or a
better term for this would be self-stigma and stigma is where parents themselves experience
societys rejection face-to-face. There was a study conducted to figure out stigma with in parents

with serious mental illnesses or SMI, as they abbreviate it, and also compare stigma between
mothers and fathers (Campbell et al. 2014). According to this study, fathers claimed to be not
easily accepted into society due to their gender, which was actually true since the interviewers
rated the fathers low when dealing with the quality of care towards their children (Campbell et
al. 2014). Today in society, males are still viewed as the head of the household and are expect
to be the breadwinners and therefore it is easy to see why these fathers can seem to feel
incompetent and why other people can see these fathers like this as well because in their eyes
they are not following the roles they had in society. Mothers tend to associate their stigma with
how their mental illness was perceive by themselves and other at an earlier age (Campbell et al.
2014), meaning that if they saw themselves as being greatly hindered by their mental health, they
will also think their parenting is lacking and never up to par with society. Mothers self-stigma
increased when they did not live with their children (Campbell et al. 2014). Interestingly, the
parents in this study noted that the majority of judgment and stigma were family members,
followed by friends (Campbell et al. 2014:729) which is contrary to beliefs. This study also
concluded that besides the stigma, most parents in the study agreed being a parent had given
them a good rhythm, which lead to a better handling of their mental illness (Campbell et al.
2014).
As previously stated in this paper, socialization successfully happens when parents are
involved in the development of their child, and mental illness can obstruct the success of the
socialization. More research on how children cope with their parents mental illness could help
set up programs that can better educate communicates and families to talk to each other about
mental health and how to talk to children about their parents behaviors. There can also be
programs families can learn how to set up healthy routines to help cope with the changes found

at home. Not all children have to be at risk because their parents have a mental illness, with these
studies and will power we can help families carry on healthy successful lives.

Reference Page
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Campbell, Linda E., Cherrie Galletly, Mary-Claire Hanlon, Melanie Lacey, Jessical Melville,
and Stefania Paolini. 2014. Parents with Serious Mental Illness: Differences in
Internalized and Externalized Mental Illness Stigma and Gender Stigma Between Mother
and Fathers. Psychiatry Research 225(2015):723-733. (Retrieved from Family &
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48:424-437. (Retrieved from Family & Society Studies Worldwide on February 1, 2015).

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