Abstract
This study aimed at examining the interrelation between family functioning and children’s mental health in families with a brain injured parent. The first goal of this study was to investigate the predictive power of fam- ily functioning for children’s psychological well-being. Second, differential sub-dimensions of family function- ing were examined in respect of their predictive power for children’s psychological adaptation. Third, coping strategies on the family system level were differentiated in terms of their predictive power both for family func- tioning and for children’s psychosocial adjustment. 58 families were included in the current study. The following instruments were used: Youth Self Report, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Scales, and Family Assessment Device. Family dysfunction as a whole positively correlates with psychological symptoms of adolescents; four sub-dimensions of family functioning predicted children’s problems, namely affective responsiveness, affective involvement, roles, and communication. This research is all the more informative as the studies on the subject are nearly inexistent, and since it focuses on a category of utmost value—children.
Highlights
It has long been known that somatic illness in a parent is a risk factor for subsequent psychiatric disorders in children (Rutter, 1966)
This study aimed at examining the interrelation between family functioning, family coping strategies and children’s mental health in families with a severe acute brain injured parent
The main purpose of this study was to examine the interrelations between differential family functioning, family coping and adolescents’ mental health in a sample of 46 adolescents having a parent affected by a severe central nervous system injury
Summary
It has long been known that somatic illness in a parent is a risk factor for subsequent psychiatric disorders in children (Rutter, 1966). Many professionals recognize the potential psycho-traumatic effect of parental illnesses for children (Lezak, 1986; Lewandowski, 1992), some of the best information comes from those working on a daily basis with these kinds of cases, i.e. those being directly involved in care process (DeBoskey & Morin, n.d.; Johnson, 2000). Due to their clinical experience, one can have a broad image about the changes forced onto families and their members by parental illnesses. Family issues are grouped into three areas—the basic task area, the developmental task area, and the hazardous task area
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