The competent offspring of psychiatrically ill parents. Part II: A search for behavioural variables

Behavioural questionnaires can be used to tease apart some of the variables involved in the psychosocial adjustment of the child. The findings and limitations of one such attempt are discussed. The study includes data collected on 90 psychiatric patients, their spouses and children. Data were collected from the patient's chart and through a structured interview with the spouse. A medical history, Rutter's parental questionnaire on children's behaviour and the Randall-McClure behaviour checklist were completed. A comparison between the 37 children scoring 13 or more and the 73 children scoring 6 or less on the Rutter's checklist was carried out. A major finding is that the characteristics of the parents do not differentiate between children exhibiting high scores versus low scores on the behavioural checklists. The group of emotionally disturbed children identified in this way is related more to the presence of an unsettling situation and poor school performance. These data do not, however allow for an assessment of the role of either temperament or marital discord in the production of emotional disturbance, nor do they designate who will eventually suffer from serious mental illness in adulthood.