225 Parenting of mothers with a serious mental illness / Mowbray, Oyserman, Bybee, and MacFarlane CCC Code:1070-5309/02 $3.00 © 2002, National Association of Social Workers, Inc. Parenting of mothers with a serious mental illness: Differential effects of diagnosis, clinical history, and other mental health variables Carol Mowbray, Daphna Oyserman, Deborah Bybee, and Peter MacFarlane This study examined the effects of mental illness on parenting in a large urban-based sample of women with serious mental illness. Seventy percent of the sample were women from ethnic minority groups, average age mid-30s; all had care responsibility for at least one minor child. Diagnostic Interview Schedule modules were administered; the women were interviewed to obtain information on parenting, clinical history, and current functioning. Diagnosis had a small but significant negative effect on parenting attitudes and behaviors, and there were race-by-diagnosis interactions. However, current symptoms mediated the effects of diagnosis and chronicity on parenting stress, and current symptomatology and community functioning partially mediated the effects of diagnosis on parenting satisfaction. Researchers–practitioners need to assess the status of mothers with mental illness rather than assuming problems or intervention needs. Key words: diagnosis; mental illness; mothers; parenting; symptomatology Carol Mowbray, PhD, is professor, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, 1080 South University, Ann Arbor, MI; e-mail: cmowbray@umich.edu. Daphna Oyserman, PhD, is associate professor and associate research scientist, School of Social Work, University of Michigan. Deborah Bybee, PhD, is associate professor, Michigan State University. Peter MacFarlane, BA, is research associate MOMS Project, School of Social Work, University of Michigan. M aternal mental illness is clearly a risk fac- tor for children. Children whose moth- ers have long-term, serious mental ill- ness are at increased risk of being placed in alternative settings such as foster care (for example, Oyserman, Benbenishty, & Ben Rabi, 1992). Furthermore, in their lifetimes, from one-third to more than one-half of these children will themselves have a DSM diagnosable disorder (Amminger et al., 1999; Jacobsen, Miller, & Kirkwood, 1997; Waters & Marchenko-Bouer, 1980). Some of the association between mother and child diagnosis may reflect the heritability (that is, estimated proportion of the phenotypic vari- ance that is genetically determined) of major men- tal illnesses—estimated at 80 percent for bipolar disorder, from 34 percent to 48 percent for de- pression, and 75 percent for schizophrenia (Rutter, Silberg, O’Connor, & Simonoff, 1999). Children’s increased risks of mental health and behavioral problems have also been related to the parenting provided by their mothers with mental illness (Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1990). A recent review of the empirical literature on the influence of serious mental illness on parenting concluded that these mothers have significantly less adequate parenting skills and behaviors than mothers who do not have a mental illness (Oyserman, Mowbray, Allen-Meares, & Firminger, 2000). Specifically, in parenting their children from preschool age through adolescence, mothers with a serious mental illness have been found to be less emotionally available, less recip- rocal, less involved, and less positive (Cohler, Gal- lant, Grunebaum, Weiss, & Gamer, 1980; Cohler & Musick, 1983; Klehr, Cohler, & Musick, 1983;