Supervisors info:
Γεράσιμος Κολαϊτης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ελένη Λαζαράτου, Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ, Επιβλέπουσα
Μαρίνα Οικονόμου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction. Μental illness of one or both parents is a factor of vulnerability in children's
mental health. Mental health professionals, parents and children agree that offsprings need more
information, but this practice is extremely limited outside of parent’s training programs and
provision of information often happens in a randomly.
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between offspring’s
information on parent’s mental illness and their psychosocial health.
Method. 59 parents with mental illness participated through completing questionnaires on
information and mental health status of their children.
Results. Significant results were found for the relationship between children's conduct
problems and the overall information they received (p = 0.038). Another important finding was that
information on the type of parental care was correlated with the less psychosocial problems of the children as reported by the parents (r(59) = 0.273, p = 0.036). It has also emerged that the
participation of the other parent in the discussion (β = 27,687, p = 0.000, SE = 5,527), the child's
age(β = 2,231, p = 0.038, SE = 1,049) and the workplace of the parent (β = 14,604, p = 0.010,
SE = 5,461) are important factors in the amount of information parents provide to their children.
Finally, it was found that the participation of the other parent in the discussion (β = 0.682, p =
0.040), information provided by the other parent (β = 1.780, p = 0.04) and the private sector of care
and monitoring of parental mental health (β = 1,485, p = 0,038) are related to the provision of
several / many information about mental illness in children.
Conclusions. The study contributed to highlighting specific important information related
to the best mental health of the children and added to the understanding of mental health
professionals on how parents with mental illness perceive the difficulties of their children. At the
same time it is the first attempt to investigate the kind of information provided to these offsprings.
The results of the study are critically discussed while highlighting the need of qualitative study in
this subject, methodologically advanced research as well as programs for preparing and
empowering parents to reveal their mental illness to their children.