Perales Francisco, Johnson Sarah E, Baxter Janeen, Lawrence David, Zubrick Stephen R
ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Long Pocket Precinct, 80 Meiers Rd, Building C, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, QLD, 4068, Australia.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, WA, 6008, Australia.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2017 Apr;52(4):423-433. doi: 10.1007/s00127-016-1328-y. Epub 2016 Dec 31.
Many children now live in non-traditional families-including one-parent, blended, and step families. While a substantial body of international evidence indicates that these children display poorer cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes than children living in traditional families, research on childhood mental disorders is scarce. This report provides new evidence of the relationships between family structure and childhood mental disorders in an under-researched context, Australia.
We use recent, nationally representative data on children aged 4-17 from Young Minds Matter, the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Well-being (N = 6310). Mental disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Version IV and included social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder.
Compared to children living in original families, children in one-parent, blended, and step families experienced a higher prevalence of mental disorders. Amongst children whose parents separated, the time since separation was not statistically significantly related to the prevalence of mental disorders.
Although we are unable to assess causality, our findings highlight the strength of the association between family structure and child and adolescent mental health. They also stress the need for programs to support children, parents, and families in non-traditional family types to reduce mental health inequalities in childhood and later life.
现在许多儿童生活在非传统家庭中，包括单亲家庭、重组家庭和继亲家庭。虽然大量国际证据表明，这些儿童在认知和社会情感方面的表现比生活在传统家庭中的儿童更差，但关于儿童精神障碍的研究却很少。本报告提供了在研究较少的澳大利亚背景下，家庭结构与儿童精神障碍之间关系的新证据。
我们使用了来自“儿童心理健康至关重要”（Young Minds Matter）的近期全国代表性数据，该数据来自第二次澳大利亚儿童与青少年心理健康与幸福调查（N = 6310），对象为4至17岁的儿童。使用儿童诊断访谈量表第四版评估精神障碍，包括社交恐惧症、分离焦虑症、广泛性焦虑症、强迫症、重度抑郁症、注意力缺陷/多动障碍和品行障碍。
与生活在原生家庭的儿童相比，单亲家庭、重组家庭和继亲家庭中的儿童精神障碍患病率更高。在父母离异的儿童中，离异后的时间与精神障碍患病率在统计学上无显著关联。
虽然我们无法评估因果关系，但我们的研究结果突出了家庭结构与儿童及青少年心理健康之间关联的强度。它们还强调需要制定项目来支持非传统家庭类型中的儿童、父母和家庭，以减少儿童期及以后生活中的心理健康不平等现象。
