" (Gowers, Entwistle, Cooke, Okpalugo and Kenyon, 1993, p. 364).
A rather weak correlation between parental social class and psychological disturbance was revealed in this study. Although it is suggested that a significant number of parents in the study exhibit a high level of unemployment, its influence on children's adjustment could not be ascertained. A link was established, however, between emotional and behavioral disorders in adolescents when parental mental illness is present, particularly where the mental illness diminishes the parent's role as caregiver.
The authors found that clients from ethnic minority backgrounds were not well-represented in the sample of psychiatric patients. One conclusion from this finding is that psychiatric facilities are not meeting the needs of minority families. Another conclusion could be that cultural differences perpetuate certain taboos regarding psychotherapy. Further research is merited in this area.
As the study above indicates, adolescents reared in living arrangements where both biological parents are present are seen less often in psychiatric facilities. The rising divorce rate in the United States is making this type of living arrangement increasingly rare. About half of all marriages end in divorce and a substantial number of today's youth will spend their lives in one-parent homes. Others will live with a birth parent and a stepparent. Because societal pressure to marry is no longer as strong as in the past, many single parents opt to cohabitate rather than remarry. The result of the societal relaxation of norms regarding divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation has created complex familial situations in which birth parent, stepparent, stepchildren, stepgrandparents, and other non-biological relatives constitute a family.
Hanson, McLanahan, and Thomson (1996) examine the effect of parental conflict and stepfamily outcomes for children. Data from the 1987-88 N...