Children and adolescents of parents with a chronic illness are at increased risk of negative outcomes, including mental and physical health problems, poorer health-related quality of life (HRQoL), educational and employment difficulties that persist well into adulthood. Parental chronic illness has wide-ranging impacts on several aspects of young offspring’s life such has affective dysregulation, high-stress reactivity with risk of stress-related somatic disorders, and weakened immune responses. They often experience emotions of shame and guilt, isolation, stigma and perception of lacking of social support. Children of parents with a chronic illness also tend to assume responsibilities associated with caring for their parent and are referred to as young carers. Not only parental illness itself but also the level of caregiving responsibilities, experiences and tasks have been associated with poorer outcomes in offspring. Hence, research must target the welfare of young offspring of parents with chronic illness.
The goal of this Research Topic is to examine the transgenerational impact of parental chronic illness on young offspring. Most of the literature in this field has focused on how young offspring’s mental health is impacted by having a mentally or physically ill parent. However, there are still important gaps in our knowledge regarding the intergenerational transmission of mental and physical health from parents to young offspring, especially from a psychosomatic perspective. According to the biopsychosocial approach, there are various genetic, individual, family and environmental risk factors for young offspring living in families with a chronically ill parent. However, little is known about the psychosomatic mechanisms by which parental chronic illness impacts the next generation.
We welcome original research article, brief research report, systematic review, review, mini-review, policy and practice review, hypothesis and theory, perspective, general commentary, or opinion. Manuscripts addressing the following themes (but not limited to) are strongly encouraged:
• Impacts of parental mental illness, severe physical illness or substance abuse on their children and adolescents compared to offspring with healthy parents (e.g., mental and physical health, psychophysiological functioning, neurobiological differences, resilience)
• Impacts of young caregiving responsibilities, experiences and tasks and their association with offspring’s adjustment outcomes (mental and physical health, psychosomatic symptoms, etc.)
• Theoretical formulations from a psychosomatic perspective of models that explain how mental and physical health problems are transmitted intergenerationally from parents to their young offspring (e.g. specific risk and protective factors including genetics, epigenetics, prenatal influences, parent-child interactions, the family environment, and the broader context)
• Intergenerational transmission of attachment and trauma in a psychosomatic perspective
• Psychosomatic mechanisms by which adverse childhood experience (ACEs) are related to physical and mental health problems in both parents and young offspring.
• Transmission of affective dysregulation and alexithymia between chronically ill parents and their offspring
• Relationship of illness behavior and health anxiety between parents and their young offspring
• Understanding which youth of chronically ill parents are more at risk for increases in adverse mental and physical health outcomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Individual, group or family preventive treatments that target empirically supported psychosomatic mechanisms which ameliorate the detrimental effects of parental illness on young offspring and the whole family (e.g., bottom-up and top-down approaches)
Children and adolescents of parents with a chronic illness are at increased risk of negative outcomes, including mental and physical health problems, poorer health-related quality of life (HRQoL), educational and employment difficulties that persist well into adulthood. Parental chronic illness has wide-ranging impacts on several aspects of young offspring’s life such has affective dysregulation, high-stress reactivity with risk of stress-related somatic disorders, and weakened immune responses. They often experience emotions of shame and guilt, isolation, stigma and perception of lacking of social support. Children of parents with a chronic illness also tend to assume responsibilities associated with caring for their parent and are referred to as young carers. Not only parental illness itself but also the level of caregiving responsibilities, experiences and tasks have been associated with poorer outcomes in offspring. Hence, research must target the welfare of young offspring of parents with chronic illness.
The goal of this Research Topic is to examine the transgenerational impact of parental chronic illness on young offspring. Most of the literature in this field has focused on how young offspring’s mental health is impacted by having a mentally or physically ill parent. However, there are still important gaps in our knowledge regarding the intergenerational transmission of mental and physical health from parents to young offspring, especially from a psychosomatic perspective. According to the biopsychosocial approach, there are various genetic, individual, family and environmental risk factors for young offspring living in families with a chronically ill parent. However, little is known about the psychosomatic mechanisms by which parental chronic illness impacts the next generation.
We welcome original research article, brief research report, systematic review, review, mini-review, policy and practice review, hypothesis and theory, perspective, general commentary, or opinion. Manuscripts addressing the following themes (but not limited to) are strongly encouraged:
• Impacts of parental mental illness, severe physical illness or substance abuse on their children and adolescents compared to offspring with healthy parents (e.g., mental and physical health, psychophysiological functioning, neurobiological differences, resilience)
• Impacts of young caregiving responsibilities, experiences and tasks and their association with offspring’s adjustment outcomes (mental and physical health, psychosomatic symptoms, etc.)
• Theoretical formulations from a psychosomatic perspective of models that explain how mental and physical health problems are transmitted intergenerationally from parents to their young offspring (e.g. specific risk and protective factors including genetics, epigenetics, prenatal influences, parent-child interactions, the family environment, and the broader context)
• Intergenerational transmission of attachment and trauma in a psychosomatic perspective
• Psychosomatic mechanisms by which adverse childhood experience (ACEs) are related to physical and mental health problems in both parents and young offspring.
• Transmission of affective dysregulation and alexithymia between chronically ill parents and their offspring
• Relationship of illness behavior and health anxiety between parents and their young offspring
• Understanding which youth of chronically ill parents are more at risk for increases in adverse mental and physical health outcomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Individual, group or family preventive treatments that target empirically supported psychosomatic mechanisms which ameliorate the detrimental effects of parental illness on young offspring and the whole family (e.g., bottom-up and top-down approaches)
