Parenting Dimensions and its Relationship with Problems among Children of Parents having Mental Illness

Background: Children having parents with a mental illness are in danger of emotional well-being issues. Specifically, the absence of a secure connection between the mother and the child can add to huge learning and developmental issues in the child. Objectives: To assess the parenting dimensions of families with one parent diagnosed with mental illness. To assess the relationship of parenting dimensions with cognitive, emotional, and behavioural problems among their children. Materials& Methods: The study was a cross-sectional comparative study. Using the consecutive sampling method,30parents diagnosed with eitherpsychotic disorders (F20-F29)or Bipolar Affective Disorder (F31)as per ICD-10forat least one year, attending the Psychiatry OPD of the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh; the second parent (without any known psychiatric disorder) with GHQ score of less than 3were recruited for the study with their consent and the Socio-demographic and Clinical Data Sheet, Alabama Parenting Questionnaire and Pediatric Symptoms Checklist was administered on both parents. Ethical clearance was sought from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Data was analyzed using appropriate statistics with the help of SPSS 16. Result: There are indications of a lack of positive parenting in parents with mental illness and there is little involvement with children and measures to educate and create awareness in parents about healthy parenting and parenting styles is required. Conclusion: There is a need to enhance parenting practices so that child’s risk of getting emotional and behavioural problems and poor child-parent communication patterns can be addressed as a mental illness in parents can have different effects on children like the incidence of cognitive, emotional and behaviours problems. Keywords: Parenting dimensions, emotional behavioural problem, children, parents with mental illnes