Barns erfarenheter av att växa upp med en förälder med psykisk ohälsa : En litteraturstudie baserat på självbiografier

Sammanfattning: The purpose regarding this literature study is to illustrate children’s experiences of growing up with a parent suffering with mental illness. This literature study will investigate how these experiences are described based on eight autobiographies, where two of these are sequels, collected from the databases libris, libsearch Malmö University and google. This is later supported with already existing research and theories. The study is based on stories told by six different children and can therefore not be used to generalize a larger group of children in similar situations. Research has shown that there is a higher risk for children who grow up with a parent struggling with mental illness to develop this themselves as well as developing substance abuse problems. The struggle the parent in question goes through might also bring challenges in parenthood where the mental illness can negatively affect the family constellation. Unpredictable behavior, abuse and attachment difficulties to the mentally ill parent are some aspects that the children have been shown to experience. Based on the autobiographies, this study has selected recurring themes and subcategories from the children’s experiences where social consequences and maintaining the facade are two that repeatedly appear. Subcategories such as physical abuse, taking responsibility and hiding the parent’s mental illness from people around them are recurring in the autobiographies. The children in question have described feelings such as shame, isolation and fear as a result of the parent’s mental illness. However, by educating and giving information to children about parents' mental illness, could in order provide support for the child regarding handling and communicating in relation to the child’s reality.