Growing up with parental mental illness and post-traumatic growth

Hodgkins, PN and Tunçgenç, B ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1135-1004, 2025. Growing up with parental mental illness and post-traumatic growth. Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma. ISSN 1936-1521

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Abstract

Globally, it is estimated that 4–23% of children have at least one parent who experiences a mental illness. Whilst the negative effects of growing up with a parent with a mental illness (PWMI) are well documented, potential positive effects such as building resilience, independence or empathy are often overlooked (Kinsella et al., 1996). Adopting a post-traumatic growth (PTG) framework, this study examined the positive effects of growing up with a PWMI. Adult participants who grew up with a PWMI (N = 71) and those who did not but still experienced a different type of highly stressful life event (N = 75) completed a survey about their parents’ mental health conditions, their own mental health status, and the Post-Traumatic Growth Index. Results showed participants who grew up with a PWMI had significantly higher levels of personal strengths compared to participants who did not. Among those who grew up with a PWMI, participants who did not have a mental illness themselves had significantly higher levels of personal strengths than those who had a mental illness. No other significant findings were found across the groups. This study provides proof-of-concept for the applicability of PTG theory to the largely overlooked, yet important area of mental health. The results suggest that growing up with PWMI may help build resilience through dealing with adult-like situations and effectively coping with adversities, provided that people have sufficient personal resources.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma
Creators:	Hodgkins, P.N. and Tunçgenç, B.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	13 September 2025
ISSN:	1936-1521
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s40653-025-00762-6 DOI 2594681 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	19 Mar 2026 09:09
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2026 09:09
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55444

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