Author(s)

Till Elbracht^1*, Mareike Busmann¹, Bonnie Adema¹, Anne Daubmann², Reinhold Kilian³, Sibylle Winter⁴, Martin Lambert⁵, Karl Wegscheider², Silke Wiegand-Grefe¹

¹Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
²Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
³Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University at Bezirkskrankenhaus Guenzburg, Guenzburg, Germany.
⁴Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universtätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Berlin, Germany.
⁵Department of Adult Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Background: Parental mental illness has a negative impact on children’s mental health. Often, the entire family structure suffers from the consequences of parental illness. Purpose: For future interventions, it is important to examine the impact of specific factors such as parental symptom severity on children’s mental health and family functioning. Method: The sample of this study included N = 203 parents with mental illness with a total of N = 309 children. Parents completed questionnaires on symptom severity. Children’s mental health symptoms were rated by parents and children and family functioning was assessed from the children’s perspective. Results: Mixed linear models showed a significant impact of parental symptom severity on children’s mental health from both parents’ and children’s perspectives. No significant impact of symptom severity on perceived family functioning from the children’s perspective was found. Conclusion: Results underline the importance of personalized interventions in terms of parental symptom severity to minimize negative outcomes for children and the whole family.

Mentally Ill Parents, Symptom Severity, Children’s Mental Health, Family Functioning

Elbracht, T. , Busmann, M. , Adema, B. , Daubmann, A. , Kilian, R. , Winter, S. , Lambert, M. , Wegscheider, K. and Wiegand-Grefe, S. (2023) Associations of Symptom Severity of Mentally Ill Parents on Family Functioning and Children’s Mental Health. Psychology, 14, 213-230. doi: 10.4236/psych.2023.142013.