Method
Search Strategy
Authors | Aim | Qualitative method | Sample | Setting |
---|---|---|---|---|
Webster (1992) | Assess the burden experienced by children of parents with a diagnosis of schizophrenia | Interviews, analysis not stated | 20 children between 8–18 years (10 males, 10 females) of parents with a diagnosis of schizophrenia | Depot Injection Clinic. Manchester, UK |
Garley et al. (1997) | Explore the subjective needs, cognitions and perceptions of asymptomatic children of parents with a mood disorder, to guide the development of a group intervention | Ethnographic approach, semi-structured focus groups, thematic analysis | 6 children between 11–15 years (3 males, 3 females) of parent with a diagnosed mood disorder (depression and manic depression) | University-affiliated psychiatric facility. Toronto, Canada |
Meadus and Johnson (2000) | Describe the experiences of adolescent children living with a parent who has a mood disorder | Unstructured interviews, Giorgi’s (1985) Descriptive Phenomenological method | 3 female children aged 17 years living with a parent with a parent with a mood disorder | Psychiatric facility and volunteer organisation. Toronto, Canada |
Handley et al. (2001) | (1) To identify the number of children of parents/carers with mental illness, (2) to identify the types of supports needed by parents, children and service providers (3) identify level of support available | Small groups and individual interviews | 4 female children of parents with diagnosis of affective disorder, aged 11–15 years | Government Mental Health Services in the southern region of Tasmania, Australia |
Riebschleger (2004) | Explore a child’s eye view of living day to day in a family that included a parent with a psychiatric disability | Secondary analysis of data from individual interviews and focus groups, Grounded Theory | 22 children between 5–17 years (mean age = 9.36, 11 males, 11 females) of parents with a psychiatric disability | Prevention programs located in three community mental health agencies in northeast, southwest, and central Michigan, USA |
Maybery et al. (2005) | Determine differences in perspective on issues facing children whose parents have a mental illness | Interpretative paradigm, separate child and parent focus group interviews, analysis not stated | 12 children between 6–16 years of parents with mood disorder, personality disorder and psychotic disorder | North east Victoria, Australia |
Cogan et al. (2005) | Explore the understanding and experiences of children affected by parental mental health problems | Semi-structured interviews, analysed using interactive model of Huberman and Miles et al. (1994) | 20 children between 12–17 years (10 males, 10 females) of parents with IDC-10 diagnosis of an affective illness and 20 children between 13–17 years (10 males, 10 females) of ‘well’ parents | Recruited via family support workers. Glasgow, Scotland |
Östman (2008) | Investigate experiences of children of parents with a severe mental illness | Thematic analysis | 8 children between 10–18 years (3 males, 5 females) of parents with psychiatric diagnosis | Psychiatric unit. South of Sweden |
Mordoch and Hall (2008) | Explore how children manage their experiences of living with a parent with a mental illness | Interviews, participant observation and drawings. Constant comparative grounded theory | 22 children between 6–16 years living part of full-time with a parent with depression, schizophrenia or bipolar diagnoses | Midwestern Canadian city |
Mordoch (2010) | Explore how children understand mental illness and what they want to tell other children living with parental mental illness | secondary grounded theory analysis of data from Mordoch and Hall (2008), focussed on investigation of a component of the ‘Monitoring’ category from the primary analysis | 22 children between 6–16 years living part of full-time with a parent with depression, schizophrenia or bipolar diagnoses | Midwestern Canadian city |
Venkataraman (2011) | Explore children’s perspectives on the parenting of mothers with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder | Initial semi-structured interview and follow-up interview. Constant comparative grounded theory | 4 children between 10–15 years with mothers that had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder | Community mental health centres and support groups. Un-named town Midwest USA |
Griffiths et al. (2012) | Explore the experiences of young people with a parent with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) | Semi-structured interviews. Inductive thematic analysis | 10 children between 13–19 years (5 males, 5 females) with a parent with OCD | Mental health services and voluntary organisations, UK |
Trondsen (2012) | Provide insight into the perspectives and experiences of children and adolescents living with a mentally ill parent | Action-oriented study of online self-help group for 2 years. Issue focussed analysis (Weiss, 1994) | 16 adolescents between 15–18 years (1 male, 15 females) of parents with a mental illness using an online self-help group | Norwegian hospital-run self-help group |
Van Parys and Rober (2013) | Explore how children experience parental depression and how they experience their own caregiving in the family | Family interviews. Thematic analysis | 14 children between 7–14 years (5 males, 9 females) of parents hospitalised for depression | Psychiatric unit for affective disorders at University, Belgium |
Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
Quality Appraisal of the Selected Papers
Research design | Recruitment strategy | Data collection | Reflexivity | Ethical issues | Rigorous data analysis | Clear statement of findings | Valuableness of the research | Total score | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Webster (1992) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
Garley et al. (1997) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 18 |
Meadus and Johnson (2000) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 19 |
Handley et al. (2001) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
Riebschleger (2004) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
Maybery et al. (2005) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
Cogan et al. (2005) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 21 |
Östman (2008) | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
Mordoch and Hall (2008) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 21 |
Mordoch (2010) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
Venkataraman (2011) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 16 |
Griffiths et al. (2012) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
Trondsen (2012) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 24 |
Van Parys and Rober (2013) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 20 |
Synthesis of the Selected Papers
Results
Overpowered by the Physiological Consequences of Adversity: “Give us back my old mum”
Adversity causes mental distress, which leads to physical dysfunction: “someone stuck a fork in, mushed it all up”
I’d describe a healthy brain as a freshly baked blueberry pie. You know everything is in its right place; it is all organized and ready to eat. A brain with a…Mental Illness…is a blueberry pie that somebody stuck a fork in, mushed it all up and everything is mixed up (Mordoch 2010, p. 23).
MHD takes over: “This isn’t my mum. She’s not acting right”
when she got ill we just wanted to get away. We didn’t want to know. She wasn’t our mum then…. I used to cry every night, you know. I used to pray to God at night and say, ‘Give us back my old mum. I don’t want this person. This isn’t my mum…She’s not acting right’ (p. 323).
A sense of loss: “It was as though she did not exist”
Vulnerability, Protection and Secrecy: “always treading on eggshells”
MHD are a persistent cause for angst: “I worry just in case”
Subjugate own needs for the parent’s: “Sometimes it’s more like I’m the one who’s the parent”
A family secret: “It’s not something we talk about”
Searching for a Needle of Hope in a Haystack of Adversity: “You don’t know what’s going on and it’s hard to be happy”
The impact of persistent uncertainty: “I hide myself in my room, and feel deeply sad”
I will stay at the house all day because I don’t want anyone to walk in or anything and I can’t lock the door because my sister is already gone and she doesn’t have her key. It…just feels like I have lot of responsibilities sometimes…sometimes it is just like wow! (Venkataraman 2011, p. 101).
It is really hard coming home after school and unexpectedly finding my mum…sitting in her chair, depressive, unkempt and tousle-headed, staring expressionless at the television, but without attention, and not saying a word…I hide myself in my room, and feel deeply sad (p. 179).