[Children's ideas about their parents' psychiatric illness--an explorative study]

What are the explanations children have about the causes of their parents' psychiatric illness? What do they know about the illness and how do they express their needs for information? These questions were investigated within a research project. By interviewing children in a controlled qualitative way it became clear that most of them felt high insecurity. As a rule children are dependent on assumptions and prefer general models of explanation like stress as one reason for theirs parents illness. An immense need for concrete information about the appropriate way of how to behave towards the ill parent as well as the course of the disorder and its treatment was evident throughout the study.