The experiences of Filipino adolescents living with clinically disturbed mothers

• Main Author: Reji, John
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Adolescent psychology > Philippines; Children of mentally ill mothers > Philippines; Counseling Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7131
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study explored the Filipino adolescents‟ experience of living with clinically disturbed mothers. The respondents of the study consisted of eight adolescents within the age bracket of 14-20 years. Employing the qualitative research design, the researcher collected data using the in-depth interview method and analyzed them using the consensual qualitative research (CQR) method. The data include the respondent adolescents‟ in-depth experiences in the cognitive, emotional, behavioral and interpersonal domains, the educational, familial and social challenges, and their coping strategies while living with their clinically disturbed mothers. The findings of the study indicated that the Filipino cultural context, family and religious values have a bearing on the adolescents‟ experiences. Such children live with constant anxiety about their future as well as a lingering fear of their inheriting the illness from their parents or transmitting it to the generations after them. The social stigma of living with clinically disturbed mothers has a dual effect on the adolescent children: on the one hand, they experience social isolation and discrimination, and on the other hand they tend to alienate themselves from social events and engagements. The adolescents‟ experience of living with a clinically disturbed mother is a very crucial factor in a reversal of roles in the family structure. The Filipino adolescents do receive support from their extended family members, friends, professionals, religious organizations and funding agencies. Their resilience and adaptive coping strategies help them to navigate successfully the stressful situation caused by the mental illness of their parents. Even as the families struggled to cope with the social stigma attached to the mental illness, the same stigma helped in strengthening the family bond among the siblings and parents. The study has implications for adolescent counseling and family therapy.