Family background and physical health of adolescents admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit, I: Principal caregivers.

A retrospective chart review of 100 consecutive adolescents discharged from a provincial psychiatric hospital adolescent unit was conducted. At the time of admission, eighty-four percent no longer lived with one or both of the biological parents. The children remained with the mother more often than with the father. However, boys who had lost their principal male caregiver more often acquired a new one, compared with girls. The latter tended to remain more in a single-mother home. Thirty-four patients were no longer in the care of either parent at admission. Seventy-four had a conduct disorder. Members of this group were more likely to have lost one or both parents. Recent loss of a parent seemed to be related to a combined diagnosis of depression and conduct disorder. Parental loss was not prominent among one class of the patients with conduct disorder--those with under-socialized aggressive disorders. The latter were often still in their intact biological family of origin, and in four instances they presented serious cases of aggressive actions in the absence of any history of parental deprivation.