The Development of Children when a Parent Experiences Mental Disorder: Stigma, Communication, and Humanization

I’ve spent my career engaged in the discipline of developmental psychopathology, primarily examining biological, familial, peer-related, and wider social influences on children’s self-regulation and impulse control. In recent decades I’ve been far more explicit about my motivations for this passion and for my continuing mission to (a) reduce stigma and (b) promote integration of psychobiological with psychosocial/cultural influences regarding the roots of mental and developmental disorders. Specifically, I have published narrative accounts of the serious mental disorder, interlaced with high achievement, permeating my family – particularly my father, with his lifelong, misdiagnosed, and quite severe bipolar disorder [see Hinshaw, 2017a, for a book-length account]. In the relatively short space allocated to the Editor’s Corner, I discuss what is known about the issue of the development of children who grow up in homes in which parental mental illness plays a prominent role [see Beardslee, Gladstone, & O’Connor, 2011; Goodman & Gotlib, 1999]. In so doing I illuminate the intersecting roles of genetic vulnerability, aberrant family communication (especially the absence of relevant communication), and the promotion of resilient functioning in offspring. To contextualize this issue, I provide a brief account of my family background before conveying a headline-level review of the ongoing stigmatization of mental illness. Indeed, despite what appears to be greater openness in society about the entire topic of mental disorder – and despite far greater public knowledge of mental health over the past half-century – stigma and social distance are expanding rather than receding [e.g., Pescosolido et al., 2010]. Next, I cover the mechanisms by which mood disorders, in particular, may be transmitted to offspring and discuss extremely promising efforts to enhance family communication and thereby prevent children from internalizing the attendant family conflict. A crucial convergence of genetically transmitted and psychosocially mediated risk is evident in this work. In the end, I contend that synthesizing current developmental science with a stance of humanization will allow investigators and practitioners to put a dent in the underlying shame, silence,