title: Staying connected: young adults' felt obligation toward parents with and without mental illness.
abstract: The present study compares 94 young adults' self-reported felt obligation toward parents, psychological symptoms, psychological well-being, and interpersonal loneliness in three family types: families where a mother has serious mental illness, families where a father has serious mental illness, and families with nondistressed parents. Results indicated no significant differences in felt obligation toward mothers or fathers as a function of family type. Young adults with a mother with serious mental illness reported significantly more psychological adjustment difficulties than their peers with a father with serious mental illness or nondistressed parents. Young adults' reports of felt obligation toward both parents were significantly positively correlated with young adults' psychological adjustment in families with a parent with serious mental illness, but were not significantly correlated in families with nondistressed parents. Study limitations, future directions for research, and implications for clinical practice are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA.
authors.forename: Kristen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.forename: Catherine H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Stein
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012941:Social Responsibility; D055815:Young Adult