Abstract / Summary
Background: Descendants of mentally ill parents (DMIP) make up about 22% of the population and are 2-13 times more likely to experience mental problems themselves. Preventive health interventions are needed, which should foster protective factors. Unfortunately, little is known about which variables can serve as protective factors for this at-risk group.
Methods: In this quasi-experimental cross-sectional study, we compared DMIP (n = 332) with a control group (n = 90) with mentally healthy parents. We predicted that (1) DMIP report a lower well-being than the control group and that DMIP who experienced more sample-specific stressors report lower well-being, (2) that family identification relates to better well-being but that this relationship is moderated by ambivalent identification and disidentification and (3) that the relationship between sample-specific stressors and well-being is moderated by resilience and stress mindset.
Results: Analyses show that compared to a control group, DMIP rather have a negative stress-mindset, identify less with their family, show higher disidentification and ambivalent identification with their families and report poorer well-being for most measures. DMIP who experience more sample-specific stressors report lower well-being. Identification with the family positively relates to DMIP's well-being. This relationship was especially strong when ambivalent identification was low (for DMIP but not for the control group). The relationship between the sample-specific stressors and well-being is not moderated by resilience or the stress mindset.
Conclusions: For preventive health programs, we propose to assess specific stressors and tailor interventions accordingly; to integrate modules which foster identification with the family and reduce ambivalent identification and to test if a stress mindset training benefits DMIP.
Clinical trial number: Not applicable.