Insight into mental illness, self-stigma, and the family burden of parents of persons with a severe mental illness

Abstract 

Background

Parents of persons with severe mental illness (SMI) often experience burden due to the illness of their daughter or son. In the present study, the possibility that parents' self-stigma moderates the relationship between the parents' insight into a daughter's or son's illness and the parents' sense of burden was investigated.

Methods

Levels of insight into a daughter's or son's mental illness, parent self-stigma, and parent burden of 127 parents of persons with an SMI were assessed. Regression analysis was used to test the putative moderating role of parents' self-stigma.

Results

Self-stigma was found to mediate rather than moderate the relationship between insight and burden. Accordingly, parent insight into the mental illness of a daughter or son appears to increase parent burden because it increases parent self-stigma.

Conclusions

The implications of these findings for practice, theory, and future research are discussed.