Failing to Meet the Good Parent Ideal: Self Stigma in Parents of Children with Mental Health Disorders
Self stigma detracts from the wellbeing, self esteem, and social connectedness of adults with mental health disorders. Although emerging research has indicated that self stigma may have similar consequences for parents of children with mental health disorders, currently we lack a comprehensive description of how parents experience self stigma. To address this, we investigated parents' lived experiences of self stigma using a descriptive qualitative approach. Directed by interview questions informed by a parent based participatory action research group (n 4) we conducted individual semi structured interviews with 12 parents of children (aged 5 13) diagnosed with emotional and/or behavioural disorders. Data obtained from interviews with 11 mothers was coded and thematically analysed. Five themes were found: (1) the 'good parent' ideal, (2) awareness of external stigma, (3) outcomes of external stigma (social avoidance and self doubt) (4) self stigma (believing self doubt and external stigma) and (5) refuting self stigma. Our findings show that parents of children with mental health disorders experience self stigma. However, because it leads to a diminished sense of being a good parent, the self stigma is of a different type to that which has been described for adults with mental illness. This has important implications for the conceptualisation and assessment of parent self stigma as research in this area moves forward.