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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
07:56

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure

Published on: September 19, 2019

Recasting research into children's experiences of parental mental illness: beyond risk and resilience

Brenda McConnell Gladstone1, Katherine M Boydell, Patricia McKeever

  • 1The Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Ontario, Canada. brenda.gladstone@sickkids.ca

Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|December 1, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Children with mentally ill parents are often viewed through a risk/resilience lens. This study argues for expanding this view to recognize children as complex individuals with unique competencies and vulnerabilities.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Sociology of Childhood

Background:

  • Children of mentally ill parents are predominantly framed by risk of developing mental illness or resilience.
  • Contemporary discourse views childhood as a vulnerable developmental period requiring protection.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore implications of the dominant risk/resilience framing of children with mentally ill parents.
  • To advocate for an expanded conceptual repertoire for understanding these children.

Main Methods:

  • Critique of existing risk/resilience literature concerning children of mentally ill parents.
  • Analysis of research on parenting with mental illness, noting the absence of children's perspectives.
  • Summary of 'new' social studies of childhood challenging passive child models.

Main Results:

  • The dominant risk/resilience discourse overlooks the multifaceted experiences of children.
  • Research on parental mental illness often neglects the child's viewpoint.
  • New social studies of childhood offer alternative perspectives on children's agency.

Conclusions:

  • Recasting children as complex individuals with developmental competencies and vulnerabilities is crucial.
  • This reframing can lead to novel research into children's lived experiences with parental mental illness.

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