Children of mentally ill parents:the impact of parental psychiatric diagnosis, comorbidity, severity and chronicity on the well-being of children,Kinder psychisch kranker Eltern: Merkmale elterlicher psychiatrischer Erkrankung und Gesundheit der Kinder aus Elternsicht

OBJECTIVE: Children of mentally ill parents are known as a high-risk population for the development of psychological disturbances. In this study, the psychiatric diagnoses, the severity and chronicity and the comorbidity of a parental mental illness as well as the non-specific parameters were examined in terms of their influence on the children's mental health.

METHODS: n = 62 children of psychiatric inpatients were examined regarding their psychic symptomatology, assessed with the CBCL-Parent Report Form. The psychiatric ICD-10 diagnoses and comorbidities as well as the severity (CGI) of the mentally ill parents were collected from psychiatric assessment forms.

RESULTS: Children of parents with personality disorders (PD) are evaluated as highly affected by their parents, regardless of whether the PD is the primary or the comorbid diagnosis. Children of parents suffering from addictive disorders are seen as the least affected by their parents. Overall, children of parents with multiple diagnoses tend to be rated as more affected. Severity of illness and chronicity do not have a considerable impact on the children's development of mental health problems. Strikingly, children with a high length of exposure to a parental illness are psychologically less affected than children with shorter times of exposure. Thus, children possibly acquire effective coping mechanisms with increasing time of exposure.

CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal the necessity of preventive programmes, especially in case of personality disorders. In addition the necessity for external assessment of the children becomes clear, especially in those cases where the parents exhibit a poor acceptance of their disease.