Question
Wite a literature review on a research claim. This will be written on a research question on a psychology topic.
Solution
Children Exposed to Parental Mental Health Problems
The outcomes of children whose parented experience mental health problems are a growing concern because, as (Stambaugh et al., 2017) states, around 18.5 % of parents suffer from mental health conditions while an estimate of 4% of parents suffers from severe mental conditions. Psychological problems among parents cause lack of attention to the needs of a child, negative parenting behavior, and more dysfunction within a family. Moreover, according to Schepman et al. (2011), father’s and mother’s mental health illnesses are major contributors of stress among children and are strongly connected to more behavioral problems and worse mental health problems for children during adolescence. According to life course scholars, negative childhood experiences may be linked to a child’s poor mental health outcomes throughout the life course. Does parental mental health impact a child’s mental health through the life course and mental health trajectories during adulthood? This literature paper will examine how parental mental health illness, as a childhood stressor in early life, is a key predictor of life course distress and influences mental health trajectories in adulthood.
Individuals with disorders and their families are vulnerable groups in society because they are exposed to various risks such as marital discord and financial hardship, which, together with the outcomes of parent’s emotional problems likes delusion behavior or emotional blunting, increases the likelihood of the child been affected by mental illness, environmentally, psychological and genetically. According to Cicchetti et al. (1998), studies consistently show that children with parents experiencing mental health problems have a higher likelihood of experiencing developmental, emotional, and behavioral problems. Additionally, approximately 25 to 50% of these children from families experiencing parental mental health problems will face some level of the psychological and emotional problem compared with 10% to 20% of children whose parents do not suffer from mental illnesses.
Moreover, families with parental mental illness are affected in terms of the core attachment needs of security, love, emotional and physical nurturing that are vital to effective socialization and to the physical and emotional development of children. Parolin and Simonelli (2016) explain attachment behaviors as actions that an individual engages in to reach and maintain closeness to another. According to attachment theory, the fast attachment experience of an infant, particularly with the mother, greatly influences the child’s emotional and cognitive development and relationships later in life. Parents who respond consistently and sensitively to the needs of their children help them establish a sense of self-identity and security. Nonetheless, sometimes due to the parent’s mental problems or situations such as death or action, the child faces neglect or inconsistent parenting rather than responsive and sensitive nurturing (Ryan et al., 2017). According to attachment theory, such parental problems lead to insecure, avoidant, disorganized, or anxious attachment, which is strongly connected to various adverse outcomes (Parolin & Simonelli, 2016). Additionally, children from families experiencing parental mental health issues are more likely to be traumatized due to family disruption, parent’s inability to offer day-to-day care, or the absence of parents when they are hospitalized. Since parental health illnesses are viewed to affect parent-child attachment negatively, it is essential to examine children’s needs in such situations in order to strengthen the ongoing connectedness between a child and a parent, thus ensuring a long-term child’s normal development.
Early life is a vital period for a child’s emotional, mental, and biological development. This is thought of as a sensitive period because due to the plasticity in this period, people are more likely to be affected by stressors. According to Wilkinson and Andersson (2019), in this period, parental health conditions lead to childhood stressors, especially because parents are not only required to ensure they offer a crucial sense of belonging and social control but also are significant in the lives of these children. Fathers and mothers experiencing mental health disorders will have impaired parenting behaviors, including being harsh and disengaging from the needs of the children. As a result, these behaviors lead to various negative emotions for children, such as distress and insecurity. Besides the change in parental behaviors, parental mental health problems can be a source of other stressful family dysfunction like parent’s substance abuse, parent’s alcoholism, marital conflict, or divorce that can lead to more distress among involved children (Williams & Cheadle, 2016). Even though studies have mainly focused on the effect of a parent having a psychological disorder as a childhood stressor on children sensitive period, the outcomes of this stressor may extend past this early life. As Wilkinson and Andersson (2019) state, the life course perspective and the stress process model have established that when children face stress during a sensitive period, they will have poor health outcomes into adulthood and throughout an individual’s life…………for help with this assignment contact us via email Address: consulttutor10@gmail.com