Methods
Criteria for Inclusion and Exclusion
Literature Search
Quality Assessment
Data Analysis
Author | Title | Year, country, journal | Aim | Method | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baik and Bowers (2006) | Living with a mother with chronic depression: to tell or not to tell? | 2006, USA, The Internet Journal of Mental health | To understand how the children of mothers with depression disclose their mother’s illness over time | In-depth interviews with five adult children who have a mother with depression. Grounded theory | Three different types of disclosing were described: “Self-disclosing as discovery”, “First disclosing” and “Selective disclosing” |
Duncan and Browning (2009) | Adult attachment in children raised by parents with schizophrenia | 2009, New Zealand, Journal of Adult Development | To gain insight from the childhood memories and long-term outcomes of adult children who were raised by a parent with schizophrenia | Semi-structured interviews with 23 adult children who were raised by a parent with schizophrenia. Attachment theory was used as a theoretical guide | The result was divided into “Childhood” and “Adulthood” |
Dunn (1993) | Growing up with a psychotic mother: a retrospective study | 1993, USA, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry | To present retrospectively reported childhood experiences from nine adults who had grown up with a mother with psychosis | Semi-structured interviews with nine adult children to mothers with psychosis. Content analysis | Five different themes were described in the result: “Abuse and Neglect”, “Isolation”, “Guilt and loyalty”, “Contacts with mental health services” and “Social supports” |
Foster (2010) | You’d think this roller coaster was never going to stop: experiences of adult children of parents with serious mental illness | 2010, Australia, Journal of Clinical Nursing | To explore adult children’s experiences of being an adult child to a parent with a serious mental illness and how they have coped with their experiences | Unstructured narrative interviews and written narrative data from ten adult children who had had a parent with severe mental illness. Thematic analysis | Four themes were described in the result: “Being uncertain”, “Struggling to connect”, “Being responsible” and “Seeking balance” |
Kadish (2015) | Five women’s recollections and reflections on being raised by a mother with psychosis | 2015, South Africa, South African Journal of Psychology | To explore memories and reflections from women who had grown up with a mother with psychosis | Semi-structured interviews with five women who had grown up with a mother with psychosis | Nine themes were described: “Resilience and survival”, “Memories of maternal psychotic episodes”, “Mother-daughter bond”, “Importance of father”, “Sibling sounding boards and responsibilities”, “Silent family storms”, “Significant others”, “Stigma, shame and secrecy” and “Maternal psychosis, motherhood and feminine identity |
McCann et al. (2015) | Family carers’ experience of caring for an older parent with severe and persistent mental illness | 2015, Australia, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing | To understand the experiences of caregivers to older people with severe and persistent mental illness and to explore what could help them stay in their caregiver role | Semi-structured interviews with 26 adult children and 4 partners who were caregivers to elder people with severe and persistent mental illness. Interpretative phenomenological analysis | Two themes were described; “Caring as difficult and demanding”, with three sub-themes, and “Developing resilience as a carer”, with three sub-themes |
Mechling (2016) | From shadows to hope: shared experiences of emerging adults who grew up with a depressed parent in the home | 2016, USA, Issues in Mental Health Nursing | To examine retrospective experiences of young adults who grew up with a depressed parent and to identify commonalities that can increase understanding of the experience | Semi-structured interviews with ten young adults who had grown up with a parent with depression. Thematic analysis | Four themes were described: “Uncertain expectations”, “Hiding it”, “Still worrying” and “Hope” |
Murphy et al. (2016) | Adult children of parents with mental illness: losing oneself, who am I? | 2016, Australia, Issues in Mental Health Nursing | To seek narratives about parenthood from adults who as children had experienced parental mental illness | Interviews with open questions in which the participants could create their own narratives. 13 adults who had had a mentally ill parent participated. Thematic analysis | In the result one theme was described: “Questioning who I am or who I have become” |
Murphy et al. (2015b) | Adult children of parents with mental illness: navigating stigma | 2015b, Australia, Child & Family Social Work | To seek adult’s experiences from childhood about having a parent with mental illness | Interviews with open questions in which the participants could create their own narratives. 13 adults who had had a mentally ill parent participated. Thematic analysis | One theme was described: “Living with stigma”, with two sub-themes |
Murphy et al. (2015a) | Childhood parental mental illness: living with fear and mistrust | 2015a, Australia, Issues in Mental Health Nursing | To seek narratives about parenthood from adults who as children had experienced parental mental illness | Interviews with open questions in which the participants could create their own narratives. 13 adults who had had a mentally ill parent participated. Thematic analysis | One theme was described in the result: “Living with fear and mistrust” |
Nilsson et al. (2015) | Young adults’ childhood experiences of support when living with a parent with a mental illness | 2015, Sweden, Journal of Child Health Care | To investigate young adults’ experiences of support groups when growing up with a mentally ill parent | Interviews with seven young women who had grown up with a parent with mental illness. Content analysis | Two themes were described in the result: “A different world” and”The emotion-filled life” |
Petrowski and Stein (2016) | Young women’s accounts of caregiving, family relationships, and personal growth when mother has mental illness | 2016, USA, Journal of Child and Family Studies | To explore family ties between young adult daughters and their fathers and siblings. To explore young adult daughters’ accounts about how their mother’s mental illness has affected their lives | Semi-structured interviews with ten young women who had grown up with a mother with mental illness. Content analysis | Six themes were described in the result: “Mother-Daughter relationships”, “Caregiving and role reversal”, “Daughters’ own mental health issues”, “Felt obligation”, “Father and sibling relationships”, “Mothers’ mental illness and daughters’ personal growth” |
Van Parys et al. (2015) | Toward understanding the child’s experience in the process of parentification: young adults’ reflections on growing up with a depressed parent | 2015, Belgium, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy | To explore how adult children find meaning in their childhood experiences of having a parent with depression | Semi-structured focus groups with 21 adult children who had had a parent with depression. Grounded theory | Three domains were described in the result: “Perceiving little room for own experiences”, “Toward a reflective stance” and “Ongoing processes of repositioning in the family” |
Wagenblass (2001) | Biographische Erfahrungen von Kindern psychisch kranker Eltern (Biographical experiences of children of psychiatrically ill parents) | 2001, Germany, Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie | To find similarities between individual childhood experiences and thereby to find general statements about the situation of children who have a parent with mental illness | Biographical interviews with eight adult children who have a parent with mental illness. Thematisation | In the result, different biographical narratives were described. They included secrecy, support from other adults, guilt, fear, a lack of love and care and great responsibility at home |