PARENT PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - Essay

Running head: PARENT PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Parent Psychopathology
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PARENT PSYCHOPATHOLOGY1
Introduction
The knowledge and understanding about the risk factors associated with the child
psychological adjustment has developed and flourished in recent decades. The parents whose
children suffer from the psychiatric symptoms are at high risk for the psychiatric symptoms.
The parent psychopathology including anxiety, personality disorders, parental depression,
ADHD and substance abuse has long been claimed to be related to the behaviour
development of the children. Humphreys, Mehta and Lee (2012) too in this context have
claimed that “‘parental psychopathology, as broadly defined by internalising and
externalising problems, and the quality of the parent-child relationship have a significant
influence on child psychological adjustment” (Franz and McKinney 2018). It is linked with
the psychiatric disorders among offspring. According to Rinaldi and Howe (2012), it refers to
the risk that is transmitted through genetic and environmental mechanisms. It is robust non-
specific predictor that is linked with a significant amount of offspring disorders. This essay
shall elaborate on discussing and analysing the theory and research relevant to parent-child
relationship while considering what it aids to the understanding of the mental health. It shall
also provide examples from group presentations for exploring the influences on child
psychological development due to parent psychopathology.
Discussion
Parent psychopathology
Psychopathology is referred to as the behavioural and psychological dysfunction that
results in social disorganisation or mental illness. Lavigne et al. (2013) have defined parent
psychopathology or parental psychopathology as the parent disorders like depressions, panic,
anxiety, anti-social behaviour, suicidal actions etc. Many of the researchers are of the view
that parent psychopathology is associated with offspring psychiatric disorders and it results in

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the transmission of the risk through environmental as well as genetic mechanisms. According
to Adolescence, Arousal and Regulation (2015), different types of psychological
determinants result in dysfunctional parental behaviour that further generate negative parental
relationships along with some dysfunctional schemas regarding the self that would result in
psychopathological manifestations.
Theoretical Models on the role of Parental psychopathology on the development of
children
According to the theoretical models, parent psychopathology have the potential of
placing children at high risk in terms of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties through
a range of processes like shares genetics, exposure to the maladaptive cognitions of the
parents, disruptions in the process of parenting or exposure to some stressful environments
like “negative life-events or shortage of parental social support” (Stack et al. 2017).
Researchers have proposed many ways in which parenting can be disturbed by parent
psychopathology. For instance, parents who experience symptoms of psychopathology may
showcase deviant behaviours and are likely to be less available and skilled at caretaking and
at the same time, might find it difficult to facilitate the social activities of children. There is a
significant research that link parent psychopathology to the functioning of the children by
means of using both continuous measures and clinical diagnoses of psychopathological
constructs. According to Zhang et al. (2020), when parents suffer from more than one type of
psychopathology, the impact on the children outcome is greater.
Examples from group presentations
Article 1: “Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Styles and Associations with Toddlers’
Externalizing, Internalizing, and Adaptive Behaviours” by Rinaldi and Howe (2012).

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 Background information
The article by Rinaldi and Howe (2012), the exposure of children to socialisation starts
within their family, mainly through the parent-child interaction. The early parent-child
relationships have been focused on different range of theories like social interactions,
attachment and the family study theories. The main assumption of this article regarding the
associations of different styles of parenting with the behavioural outcomes of children is
largely derived from the relationships between mother and child. Still, as per the theory of
socialisation, fathers too play a vital role in children’s development. Apart from this, the two
main objectives of this article were to investigate and assess the reports of the mothers and
fathers about their own as well as the parenting styles of their partners and finding out how
their parenting styles uniquely predict their children’s internalising, externalising and the
different adaptive behaviours. In this study, about 59 fathers and mothers were asked to
complete the “Parenting Styles and Dimension Questionnaire” and the “Behavior Assessment
Scale for Children-2”.
 Findings from the article
As per the findings of this article there is a continuous need for incorporating the different
measures of both the father and mother’s parenting in the assessment of dynamics in the
families of two parents. The reports of the parents were seen to be positively correlated with
one another for all the three styles of parenting- permissive, authoritarian and authoritative.
The findings have also revealed that the self-reported parenting styles of the mothers and
fathers have explained about 44% of the variance in the externalising behaviours of the
youngsters (Rinaldi and Howe 2012).
 What the article says about usual psychological development