1. Recasting research into children's experiences of parental mental illness: Beyond risk and resilience
- Author
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Gladstone, Brenda McConnell, Boydell, Katherine M., and McKeever, Patricia
- Subjects
Parenting ,Mentally ill ,Children ,Child psychopathology ,Public health ,Medical research ,Medicine, Experimental ,Child development ,Health ,Social sciences - Abstract
To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.10.038 Byline: Brenda McConnell Gladstone (a)(b), Katherine M. Boydell (a)(c), Patricia McKeever (d) Keywords: Sociology of childhood; Risk; Parental mental illness Abstract: Children who live with a mentally ill parent are viewed primarily as being 'at risk' of developing a mental illness themselves and those who remain well are considered extraordinarily resilient. This particular risk/resilience discourse is embedded within larger contemporary discourses about risk and childhood. Childhood is seen as a critical period of development during which children need protection due to their physical and psychological vulnerabilities. In this paper, the implications of this dominant casting of children are explored and it is argued that the conceptual repertoire about those living with a mentally ill parent should be expanded. A critique of the literature that established the risk/resilience discourse is followed by a discussion of research about parenting with a mental illness within which children are surprisingly absent. Recent thinking about children arising out of the 'new' social studies of childhood is summarized to illustrate its resistance to the hegemonic image of children as passive, developing, 'unfinished' persons. A recasting of children as complex young persons who have competencies as well as vulnerabilities linked to their developmental stages, would lead to different lines of inquiry about children's experiences of mental illness in a parent. Author Affiliation: (a) The Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Ontario, Canada (b) Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada (c) Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health Science, University of Toronto, Canada (d) Faculty of Nursing and Department of Public Health Science, University of Toronto, Canada
- Published
- 2006