RELATION BETWEEN CHILDRENS PERCEPTIONS OF MATERNAL MENTAL-ILLNESS ANDCHILDRENS PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT

Evaluates how a child's subjective perceptions of a mentally ill paren t's psychiatric symptoms and parenting skills relate to the child's ps ychological adjustment. In this study, 57 children and their mothers, half of whom were mothers with a severe and chronic mental illness, pa rticipated in a research protocol that included a directed observation of mother-child dyads and measures of parenting style, parent psychop athology, child behavior, and child's self-perceptions, The results in dicated that children's subjective perceptions of parents' behavior ar e important variables in a child's adjustment.