Parents of adolescents with psychiatric disorders: insight into the disorder, self-stigma and parental stress

Abstract

Background: Parents of adolescents with mental disorders experience stress partially due to the way they perceive and experience their offspring's disorder. The current study assessed the mediator role of self-stigma in the relationship between insight into the disorder and parental stress of parents of adolescents with mental disorders.

Method: A total of 37 parents of adolescents with psychiatric disorders were assessed for their level of insight, self-stigma and parental stress.

Results: The hypothesized mediation model was confirmed and is consistent with previous study on parents of adults with severe mental illness.

Discussion: The positive association between insight and parental stress is mediated by these parents' self-stigma, suggesting that insight increases the self-stigma, which in turn increases the parental stress. These results may have clinical implications with regard to the treatment of the family of adolescents with mental disorders.