Quality of life of parents of mentally-ill children: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Aims: To examine the quality of life (QOL) of parents of children with a specific mental disorder (any age). Methods: Relevant articles were searched using different databases. Articles were included that compared the QOL of parents with mentally-ill children to parents of healthy controls or norm values or provided the required data for this comparison. A meta-analysis was conducted to obtain an overall mean effect size estimate. Additional analyses were performed to assess publication bias and moderation. Results: Twenty-six out of 10 548 articles met the pre-defined inclusion criteria. Most of these studies focused on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder, used clinical samples that mainly included males and young children and studied the QOL of mothers. The meta-analysis revealed that parents of mentally-ill children are experiencing a clinically relevant reduction in their QOL relative to parents of healthy children and norm values (g= −0.66). Conclusions: The compromised QOL of parents of mentally-ill children needs to be considered and addressed by health professionals who are in contact with them. The paper provides insights into existing research gaps and suggests improvements for subsequent work.
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Parents of children with ADHD report moderate quality-of-life deficit.
“A meta-analysis of 17 studies encompassing 647 families (over 2,300 participants) evaluated the quality of life of parents whose children had ADHD relative to parents with typically developing children. Parents of the former reported a moderate deficit in quality of life relative to parents of the latter (Dey et al., 2019).”
From The World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement: 208 Evidence-based conclusions about the disorder (2021) · cites this paper as Dey et al., 2019
The QOL ES section reports lower quality of life for parents of children with mental disorders than for parents of healthy children (g = -0.63), and Table 3 includes ADHD studies. But that effect is pooled across disorders, not reported as an ADHD-specific estimate; the paper reports 26 included studies, not an ADHD-only meta-analysis of 17 studies and 647 families. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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“Parents of the former reported a moderate deficit in quality of life relative to parents of the latter (Dey et al., 2019).”
- Authors
- Dey, M., Paz Castro, R., Haug, S., & Schaub, M. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Venue
- Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-08-06
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 563-577
- ISSN
- 2045-7960 (ISSN-L)
- 2045-7979
- PMC
- PMC6999041
- OpenAlex
- W2981498376
- Semantic Scholar
- 48de274e0323b1896b429f970cd0d03694fb9030
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family Caregiving in Mental Illness
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Family Support in Illness
- Keywords
- quality of life, parental burden, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, mothers, child psychopathology
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adolescent, Adult, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Parents, Quality of Life, Parenting
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