Parental mental illness and psychiatric disorders in "at risk" children.

Data are reported from psychiatric evaluations of a large group of communication disordered children and their parents who presented to a community speech clinic. Systematic psychiatric evaluations involving the use of standardized interviews, questionnaires, and DSM-III diagnostic criteria reveal that approximately 50% of the children have definable DSM-III psychiatric disorders and approximately the same percentage of children have at least one psychiatrically ill parent. Comparisons of children with psychiatrically ill parents and children with psychiatrically well parents show that parental psychiatric disorder is associated with increased psychopathology in the children. However, other factors, particularly psychosocial stress, are more strongly correlated with the presence of childhood psychopathology. There are few correlations between the types of parental psychiatric disorders and the types of childhood disorders.