title: The Impact of Various Parental Mental Disorders on Children's Diagnoses: A Systematic Review.
abstract: Children of mentally ill parents are at high risk of developing problems themselves. They are often identified and approached as a homogeneous group, despite diversity in parental diagnoses. Some studies demonstrate evidence for transgenerational equifinality (children of parents with various disorders are at risk of similar problems) and multifinality (children are at risk of a broad spectrum of problems). At the same time, other studies indicate transgenerational specificity (child problems are specifically related to the parent's diagnosis) and concordance (children are mainly at risk of the same disorder as their parent). Better insight into the similarities and differences between children of parents with various mental disorders is needed and may inform the development and evaluation of future preventive interventions for children and their families. Accordingly, we systematically compared 76 studies on diagnoses in children of parents with the most prevalent axis I disorders: unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders. Methodological characteristics of the studies were compared, and outcomes were analyzed for the presence of transgenerational equifinality, multifinality, specificity, and concordance. Also, the strengths of the relationships between child and parent diagnoses were investigated. This review showed that multifinality and equifinality appear to be more of a characteristic of children of unipolar and bipolar parents than of children of anxious parents, whose risk is mainly restricted to developing anxiety disorders. For all children, risk transmission is assumed to be partly specific since the studies indicate a strong tendency for children to develop the same disorder as their parent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. fsantvoort@pluryn.nl.|Pluryn, PO Box 53, 6500 AB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. fsantvoort@pluryn.nl.
authors.forename: Floor
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Santvoort
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Clemens M H
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hosman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Pedagogy, Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan M A M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Janssens
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Karin T M
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: van Doesum
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, Krongold Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reupert
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Linda M A
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: van Loon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant
keywords: Children’s diagnostic outcomes; Diagnoses; Mental illness; Parents; Systematic review