Mothers with serious mental illness: when symptoms decline does parenting improve?
Serious mental illnesses (SMI) and problems with parenting are associated, but the link between change in psychiatric symptoms and change in parenting over time has not been examined. Three hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis 1: As symptoms decline, parenting stress will decline and parenting nurturance will improve. Hypothesis 2: High prior levels of symptoms have a continuing impact on parenting over time, persisting even when symptoms remit. Hypothesis 3: Both symptoms and parenting are influenced by contextual factors; taking these into account diminishes the association between them. With the use of latent growth curve modeling and an economically and racially diverse sample of mothers with SMI (N = 294), evidence supporting Hypothesis 1 was found, but there was no support for Hypothesis 2. For Hypothesis 3, contextual factors predicted both symptoms and parenting; accounting for context diminished the association between symptoms and parenting stress, but context did not completely explain the association between symptoms and parenting.
Kahng
Sang Kyoung
SK
Department of Social Welfare, College of Social Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. skahng@snu.ac.kr
Oyserman
Daphna
D
Bybee
Deborah
D
Mowbray
Carol
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological