The Impact of Mental Illness on the Family

Abstract

Research in the sociology of mental health is concerned primarily with understanding how individuals' social locations have consequences for their mental health. It is also clear that individuals' mental health problems have consequences for others in their social networks, most notably, their family members. In thinking about mental illness as a stressor within the family, there are 2 separate bodies of literature that have traced the consequences of individuals' mental disorders for their families. The 1st concerns the intergenerational transmission of mental illness. There is ample evidence that documents the relationship between parental mental illness and children's emotional and behavioral problems. The 2nd body of literature examines the burden of stress experienced by family members who provide care to severely mentally ill individuals. In this chapter, the author briefly reviews the literature on each of these areas of research. In doing so, the author identifies areas where the sociology of mental health has had a major impact, and where there appear to be important opportunities to develop a more distinctly sociological perspective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)