Children of mothers diagnosed with serious mental illness: patterns and predictors of service use.
Children who have a parent diagnosed with a mental illness are at risk of psychiatric and behavioral problems; yet, these children do not necessarily receive needed services. Research has investigated correlates of child mental health service use, but not for these high-risk children. This study is part of an NIMH-funded, longitudinal investigation and describes child problems, service use, and predictors of service use for 506 children of 252 mothers diagnosed with serious mental illness. Mothers are primarily poor, minority women from urban areas. A multilevel-model approach is used to examine service use for multiple siblings in a family. More than one third of children had received services (from school or mental health agencies) in their lifetimes. Service use was predicted by child demographic characteristics (being male, non-African American, and older), social context variables (more negative life events, less financial satisfaction, and more parenting dissatisfaction), and maternal psychiatric variables (positively by high levels of case management receipt and affective diagnoses, negatively by maternal substance abuse history). In a subsample of "target children," mothers' rating of child behavior problems additionally predicted service use. Implications of results for research and intervention are discussed.
School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1106, USA. cmowbray@umich.edu
Carol T
CT
Mowbray
Lisa
L
Lewandowski
Deborah
D
Bybee
Daphna
D
Oyserman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011204:Poverty Areas