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The Effects of Parental Illness and Other Ill Family Members on the Adjustment of Children

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

This study addresses limitations of prior research that have used group comparison designs to test the effects of parental illness on youth.

Purpose

This study examined differences in adjustment between children of a parent with illness and peers from ‘healthy’ families controlling for the effects of whether a parent or non-parent family member is ill, illness type, demographics and caregiving.

Methods

Based on questionnaire data, groups were derived from a community sample of 2,474 youth (‘healthy’ family, n = 1768; parental illness, n = 336; other family member illness, n = 254; both parental and other family illness, n = 116).

Results

The presence of any family member with an illness is associated with greater risk of mental health difficulties for youth relative to peers from healthy families. This risk is elevated if the ill family member is a parent and has mental illness or substance misuse.

Conclusions

Serious health problems within a household adversely impact youth adjustment.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (ID: DP0879595).

Authors Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Author Dr Pakenham and author Stephen Cox declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.’

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    K. I. Pakenham PhD

  2. Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    S. Cox PhD

Authors
  1. K. I. Pakenham PhD
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  2. S. Cox PhD
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Correspondence to K. I. Pakenham PhD.

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Pakenham, K.I., Cox, S. The Effects of Parental Illness and Other Ill Family Members on the Adjustment of Children. ann. behav. med. 48, 424–437 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9622-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9622-y

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