Children's Perceptions of Living With a Parent With a Mental Illness: Finding the Rhythm and Maintaining the Frame

Abstract

In this article, we explain how children managed their experiences of living with a parent with a mental illness. Symbolic interactionism served as the theoretical framework. The sample comprised 22 children between 6 and 16 years of age, who were living part- or full-time with a parent with depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar illness. Data collection included interviews, participant observation, and drawing. Concurrent data collection and constant comparative analysis were undertaken to generate two core variables: finding the rhythm and maintaining the frame. Finding a rhythm with their parents required children to monitor and adjust to their parents' behaviors so they could maintain connections with parents and family stability. Maintaining the frame allowed children to create safe distances between themselves and their parents so they could preserve themselves while trying to stay connected. The children were managing their lives and identities to avoid being engulfed by their parents' mental illnesses.

What is the Lived Experience of Being Discharged From a Psychiatric Inpatient Stay?

“…This review will focus on the viewpoint of the patient, which may not represent the views of professionals, the public or friends and family (refer to Milliken & Northcott, 2003;Mordoch & Hall, 2008 for examples), however it is the truth as they perceive it.…”

Perceived parental attitudes and the levels quality of life in children and adolescents at high risk for schizophrenia

“…Çalışmamı-zın aksine, ilgili araştırmalarda yüksek riskli çocuklar akademik performanslarında ve okula devamlılıklarında düşüş, zorbalığa uğrama, derste tükenmişlik nedeniyle uyuyakalma gibi sorunlar tanımlarken; bazıları okulu evdeki sıkın-tılardan uzaklaşabildikleri bir sığınak olarak tanımlamışlardır. 29,30 Başka bir araştırmada ise, özellikle anne-babanın hastalığının akut dönem-lerinde çocukların konsantrasyon güçlüğü yaşa-dığı ve okuldaki performanslarının düştüğü bildirilmiştir. 31 Çalışmamızdaki hasta anne-babaların çoğunun araştırma sırasında remisyonda olması okul işlevselliğinde sağlıklı anne-babaların çocuklarına göre anlamlı fark bulunmamasını açıklayabilir.…”

Can I Tell Just by Myself? Discussing a Parental Mental Disorder With a Child in a Research Interview

“…As in a growing number of qualitative studies (e.g., Riebschleger, 2004;Aldridge, 2006;Mordoch & Hall, 2008;Östman, 2008;Backer, 2011;Oskouie, Zeighami, & Joolaee, 2011), our focus was on children's views of their parent's problem. In the interviews, all the children, without being asked, reported feelings of shame about their parent's problem, thereby demonstrating their awareness of the stigma attached to mental health disorders.…”

“…In this article, we examine how the stigma of a parental mental disorder emerges and how it is negotiated in a research interview between an 8-year-old girl and a female interviewer. In our approach, we depart from the existing literature, which has mainly addressed content in interviews with children (Mordoch & Hall, 2008;Östman, 2008;Oskouie et al, 2011), and focus explicitly on the dialogue between a child and an interviewer. The perspective of our study is thus micro-sociological and constructionist.…”