Parental narratives of acute adolescent distress
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Parental narratives of acute adolescent distress
IRAS ID
146420
Contact name
Ceri Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Research summary
There has been a lot of research into the impact of parental mental health difficulties on their children. However little is known about how parents experience their child’s mental distress. Currently, the voices of parents whose children have mental health difficulties are rarely heard and instead society tends to blame or stigmatise this group. By asking parents to tell their stories, this will hopefully contribute to establishing an alternative, more helpful, narrative. These narratives can also be used to inform professionals, so that they can better understand how parents make sense of their experiences. This might then enable parents to become more involved in their child's care by collaborating with professionals effectively.
The Chief Investigator will interview 10 parents, who have a child who has recently been admitted to a hospital for adolescents with mental health difficulties. Parents from a range of backgrounds will be eligible to take part, including mothers and fathers and biological and non-biological parents. In order to take part, participants must live with the adolescent when the latter is not in hospital, and be the primary caregiver for them. Participants will be excluded from the study if their child has been in hospital for less than one month or if they cannot speak fluent English. The interview will last a maximum of an hour and a half and during this time parents will be asked to tell their stories about their own experiences of their child’s distress.
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1676
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion