Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Exploring perceptions of family relationships by individuals with intellectual disability and psychiatric disorders
- Authors:
- WIDMER Eric D., KEMPF-CONSTANTIN Nadine L., CARMINATI Giuliana Galli
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 91(4), October 2010, pp.378-384.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
This article explores the ways in which individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and psychiatric disorders perceive their family relationships compared with the perceptions of those relationships by family members. The study used social network methods as it focused on perceptions of a large number of family relationships of individuals with ID rather than specific family dyads. The participants were 17 individuals with mild ID and psychiatric disorders who were patients at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland. Each participant was interviewed and completed the Family Network questionnaire. The first family member that they cited was also interviewed. A third group, a comparison nonclinical group of 17 individuals, matched for age and sex with the clinical group were also interviewed. The results showed that the clinical group, compared with comparison nonclinical individuals, perceived their family as presenting less emotional support and fewer influential relationships, but the same number of conflict relationships. For the most part, the interviews with family members confirmed these results, confirming that the patients had a very limited set of supportive relationships. However, there were some significant differences in the perceptions between patients and their family members, with family members perceiving additional relationships that the patient did not perceive. The importance of these findings for research on family relationships of individuals with ID is discussed.