Families With Mentally Ill Parents: Are Children of Happy Couples Less Burdened?

Background: Mental illness and low marital satisfaction of parents can be regarded as psychosocial risk factors for children. These psychosociat risk factors often co-occur in a family and may accumulate. Objective: The current study examined the relationship between marital satisfaction, parental mental illness, and the child's behavioral problems or attachment problems in a sample of mentally ill parents (N = 63) and in a nonclinical comparison group (N = 342). Method: Marital satisfaction and parental mental illness were studied with the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), respectively. Behavioral and attachment problems of the child were studied using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Relationship Problems Questionnaire (RPQ). Results: Mentally ill parents showed distinctly lower marital satisfaction than parents in the nonclinicat comparison group. In both samples, the parents' marital satisfaction correlated significantly with children's behavioral problems. This effect disappeared when we controlled for parental mental health. In both samples, no correlation was found between marital satisfaction of the parents and children's attachment problems. Marital satisfaction was found not to be a mediator of the relationship between parental mental health and the children's behavioral or attachment problems. Conclusion: In the treatment of a mentally ill parent, family-centered interventions should be considered and integrated early.