The Impact Of Parental Mental Illness On Children

With the questions surrounding the increase of disruptive behavior by adolesents in households, schools and communities, the negative impact of parental mental illness on children has been the subject of psychological studies. Mental illness can affect any one regardless of their sex, age, income or past health concerns. When an individual, male of female, becomes a parent the symptoms of the mental illness may have major influences on their children. Not all children are impacted in the same manor. Some children may exhibit aggressive behaviors while others may become withdrawn from social settings altogether. Yet others may exhibit no adverse behaviors at all. The question is why do some children of mentally ill parents have different emotional and behavioral outcomes than others. Some studies show that the influence of the illness itself if not the concern, but the way it affects the parents behaviors, family relationships and positive parenting skills that determine the risk factors for the children.(1) Other studies have been done concerning the impact that heredity may have when determining the affects of the parents mental …show more content…
The children may experience an unstable environment at home, which may include abuse and neglect. They may witness things such as episodes of depression, withdrawal, poor interpersonal relationships with family and friends or self-loathing behaviors by their parents. A variety of interventions can be attempted to help alleviate the impacts of these behaviors which hinder the parent from providing a stable home life for their children. Parenting education programs, family psychiatric care and coaching/ mentoring programs have had success in helping ease the negative effects of the parent’s mental illness on the child.(3) However, genetics have also been attributed to these emotional/ behavior problems found in these