Sell Marlit, Radicke Alina, Adema Bonnie, Daubmann Anne, Kilian Reinhold, Stiawa Maja, Busmann Mareike, Winter Sibylle M, Lambert Martin, Wegscheider Karl, Plass-Christl Angela, Wiegand-Grefe Silke
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Oct 18;12:737861. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.737861. eCollection 2021.
The relevance of coping behavior for the individual's own mental health has been widely investigated. However, research on the association between coping of parents with a mental illness and their children's mental health is scarce. In the current study, we address the role of several parental coping strategies and their relation to child psychological symptoms. As part of the German randomized controlled multicenter study CHIMPS (children of mentally ill parents), parents with mental illness completed questionnaires on illness-related coping and child mental health symptoms. Children's diagnoses of a mental disorder were assessed with diagnostic interviews. The sample comprised = 195 parents with mental illness and = 290 children and adolescents aged 4-18 years. We conducted mixed models to investigate the associations of parental coping strategies with internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as the diagnosis of a mental disorder in children controlling for sociodemographic factors and parental symptom severity. Parental coping characterized by religiosity and quest for meaning was significantly associated with fewer mental health symptoms and lower odds of a mental disorder in children, whereas a depressed processing style was related to increased internalizing problems in the children. Coping behavior in parents with mental illness is a relevant factor for the mental health of their children and should be considered in preventive interventions.
应对行为对个体自身心理健康的相关性已得到广泛研究。然而，关于患有精神疾病的父母的应对方式与其子女心理健康之间关联的研究却很匮乏。在当前研究中，我们探讨了几种父母应对策略的作用及其与儿童心理症状的关系。作为德国随机对照多中心研究CHIMPS（患有精神疾病父母的子女）的一部分，患有精神疾病的父母完成了关于疾病相关应对方式和儿童心理健康症状的问卷调查。通过诊断访谈对儿童的精神障碍诊断进行评估。样本包括195名患有精神疾病的父母以及290名4至18岁的儿童和青少年。我们进行了混合模型分析，以研究在控制社会人口学因素和父母症状严重程度的情况下，父母应对策略与儿童内化和外化症状以及精神障碍诊断之间的关联。以宗教信仰和对意义的追求为特征的父母应对方式与儿童较少的心理健康症状以及较低的精神障碍几率显著相关，而消极的处理方式则与儿童内化问题的增加有关。患有精神疾病的父母的应对行为是其子女心理健康的一个相关因素，应在预防性干预中予以考虑。
