Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T15:14:36.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Parenting and the Emotional and Behavioural Adjustment of Young Children in Families with a Parent with Bipolar Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

Rachel Calam*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
Steven Jones
Affiliation:
Lancaster University, UK
Matthew R. Sanders
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia
Robert Dempsey
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
Vaneeta Sadhnani
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
*
Reprint requests to Rachel Calam, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: rachel.calam@manchester.ac.uk

Abstract

Background: Children of parents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of disturbance. Aims: This study examined relationships between parental mood, parenting, household organization and child emotional and behavioural adjustment in families with a parent with bipolar disorder to determine areas of specific need for parenting support. Method: 48 parents were recruited through advertisements via self-help organizations. The study was conducted online. Parental mood and activity was assessed by self-report questionnaires (CES-D, ISS, MDQ and SRM); parenting was assessed using the Parenting Scale (PS). The SDQ was used to assess the parent's view of their child's emotional and behavioural difficulties. The Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS) assessed household organization. Results: Parents reported high levels of difficulties across all measures and scores were above clinical cut-offs on most scales. Children were reported as showing high levels of disturbance on the SDQ, including all sub-scales. Parenting and depression scores were significantly positively correlated, as were depression, parenting and CHAOS score. Regression analyses indicated that CHAOS was the strongest predictor of Total Difficulties and Emotional Symptoms on the SDQ. Conclusions: Families are likely to benefit from interventions tailored to meet their parenting needs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, D. S., O'Leary, S. G., Wolff, L. and Acker, M. M. (1993). The Parenting Scale: a measure of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations. Psychological Assessment, 5, 137144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, M. S., Crits-Christoph, P., Ball, W. A., Dewees, E., McAllister, T., Alahi, P., et al. (1991). Independent assessment of manic and depressive symptoms by self-rating: scale characteristics and implications for the study of mania. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 807812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biederman, J., Petty, C. R., Monuteaux, M. C., Evans, M., Parcell, T., Faraone, S. V., et al. (2009). The Child Behavior Checklist-Pediatric Bipolar Disorder profile predicts a subsequent diagnosis of bipolar disorder and associated impairments in ADHD youth growing up: a longitudinal analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 70, 732740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birmaher, B., Axelson, D., Monk, K., Kalas, C., Goldstein, B., Hickey, M. B., et al. (2009). Lifetime psychiatric disorders in school-aged offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66, 287296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calam, R., Sanders, M. R., Miller, C., Sadhnani, V. and Carmont, S. A. (2008). Can technology and the media help reduce dysfunctional parenting and increase engagement with preventative parenting interventions? Child Maltreatment, 13, 347361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, G. A. and Weintraub, S. (1993). Childhood behavior problems and bipolar disorder-relationship or coincidence? Journal of Affective Disorders, 28, 143153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, K. D., Blasey, C., Ketter, T. A. and Steiner, H. (2001). Family environment of children and adolescents with bipolar parents. Bipolar Disorder, 3, 7378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coldwell, J., Pike, A. and Dunn, J. (2006). Household chaos: links with parenting and child behaviour. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 11161122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conrad, M. and Hammen, C. (1993). Protective and resource factors in high and low-risk children: a comparison of children with unipolar, bipolar, medically ill, and normal mothers. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 593607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corapci, F. and Wachs, T. D. (2002). Does parental mood or efficacy mediate the influence of environmental chaos upon parenting behavior? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 48, 182201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, D. H., Styron, T. and Davidson, L. (2011). Supported parenting to meet the needs and concerns of mothers with severe mental illness. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 14, 137153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DelBello, M. P. and Geller, B. (2001). Review of studies of child and adolescent offspring of bipolar parents. Bipolar Disorder, 3, 325334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duffy, A. (2009). The early course of bipolar disorder in youth at familial risk. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18, 200205.Google ScholarPubMed
Duffy, A., Alda, M., Crawford, L., Milin, R. and Grof, P. (2007). The early manifestations of bipolar disorder: a longitudinal prospective study of the offspring of bipolar parents. Bipolar Disorder, 9, 828838.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frank, E., Swartz, H. A. and Kupfer, D. J. (2000). Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy: managing the chaos of bipolar disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 48, 593604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 13371345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R., Ford, T., Simmons, H., Gatward, R. and Meltzer, H. (2000). Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 534539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillegers, M. H., Reichart, C. G., Wals, M., Verhulst, F. C., Ormel, J. and Nolen, W. A. (2005). Five-year prospective outcome of psychopathology in the adolescent offspring of bipolar parents. Bipolar Disorder, 7, 344350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Williams, J. B. W., Spitzer, R. L., Calabrese, J. R., Flynn, L., Keck, P. E. Jr., et al. (2000). Development and validation of a screening instrument for bipolar: the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 18731875.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inoff-Germain, G., Nottelmann, E. D. and Radke-Yarrow, M. (1992). Evaluative communications between affectively ill and well mothers and their children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 20, 189212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, S. H. and Bentall, R. P. (2008). A review of potential cognitive and environmental risk markers in children of bipolar parents. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 10831095.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, S. H., Tai, S., Evershed, K., Knowles, R. and Bentall, R. (2006). Early detection of bipolar disorder: a pilot familial high-risk study of parents with bipolar disorder and their adolescent children. Bipolar Disorders, 8, 362372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Judd, L. L., Akiskal, H. S., Schettler, P. J., Coryell, W., Maser, J., Rice, J. A., et al. (2003). The comparative clinical phenotype and long term longitudinal episode course of bipolar I and II: a clinical spectrum or distinct disorders? Journal of Affective Disorders, 73, 1932.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matheny, A. P. and Wachs, T. D. (1995). Bringing order out of chaos: psychometric characteristics of the Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 429444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monk, T. H., Flaherty, J. F., Frank, E., Hoskinson, K. and Kupfer, D. J. (1990). The Social Rhythm Metric: an instrument to quantify the daily rhythms of life. Journal of Nervous Mental Disorders, 178, 120126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Leary, S. G., Slep, A. M. and Reid, M. J. (1999). A longitudinal study of mothers’ overreactive discipline and toddlers’ externalizing behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 331341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ostiguy, C. S., Ellenbogen, M. A., Linnen, A. M., Walker, E. F., Hammen, C. and Hodgins, S. (2008). Chronic stress and stressful life events in the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 114, 7484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radloff, L. S. (1991). The use of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 149166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reichart, C. G., Wals, M., Hillegers, M. H., Ormel, J., Nolen, W. A. and Verhulst, F. C. (2004). Psychopathology in the adolescent offspring of bipolar parents. Journal of Affective Disorders, 78, 6771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reid, J. B. and Patterson, G. R. (1989). The development of antisocial behaviour patterns in childhood and adolescence. European Journal of Personality, 3, 107119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romero, S., Delbello, M. P., Soutullo, C. A., Stanford, K. and Strakowski, S. M. (2005). Family environment in families with versus families without parental bipolar disorder: a preliminary comparison study. Bipolar Disorder, 7, 617622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sachs, G. S., Baldassano, C. F., Truman, C. J. and Guille, C. (2000). Comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with early- and late-onset bipolar disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 466468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanders, M. R., Bor, W. and Morawska, A. (2007). Maintenance of treatment gains: a comparison of enhanced, standard, and self-directed Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 983998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, M. R., Calam, R., Durand, M., Liversidge, T. and Carmont, S. A. (2008). Does self-directed and web-based support for parents enhance the effects of viewing a reality television series based on the Triple P-Positive Parenting Programme? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 924932.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, D. S., Connell, A., Dishion, T. J., Wilson, M. N. and Gardner, F. (2009). Improvements in maternal depression as a mediator of intervention effects on early childhood problem behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 21, 417439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, D. S., Gilliom, M., Ingoldsby, E. M. and Nagin, D. S. (2003). Trajectories leading to school-age conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 189200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, G. H., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y. and Sylvia, L. G. (2008). Social rhythm regularity and the onset of affective episodes in bipolar spectrum individuals. Bipolar Disorder, 10, 520529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, G. H., Sylvia, L. G., Alloy, L. B., Barrett, F., Kohner, M., Iacoviello, B., et al. (2008). Lifestyle regularity and cyclothymic symptomatology. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64, 482500.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Twiss, J., Jones, S. and Anderson, I. (2008). Validation of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire for screening for bipolar disorder in a UK sample. Journal of Affective Disorders, 110, 180184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vance, Y. H., Huntley Jones, S., Espie, J., Bentall, R. and Tai, S. (2008). Parental communication style and family relationships in children of bipolar parents. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 47, 355359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zubrick, S. R., Ward, K. A., Silburn, S. R., Lawrence, D., Williams, A. A., Blair, E., et al. (2005). Prevention of child behavior problems through universal implementation of a group behavioral family intervention. Prevention Science, 6, 287304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.