Abstract
Families living with parental mental and substance use disorders face considerable biopsychosocial and, oftentimes, socioeconomic challenges, with complex pathways to mitigating risk, enhancing resilience in children and youth, and supporting recovery in adults who are parents. This special issue contains the latest knowledge on a) the prevalence of parental psychiatric disorders and children who may be affected, and relationships among risk and protective factors and outcomes for children, youth, and parents across the lifespan, including the perinatal period; b) intervention development, implementation, and testing at the individual practitioner, parent, child, or youth level, as well as recommendations for making change at the national level; and c) innovative measurement and methodological developments, including the protocols of studies currently underway. The special issue comprises 26 papers, representing the contributions of nearly 100 investigators from 15 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. The research studies embrace diverse designs and methods; and both primary data collection with providers, parents, children, and youth, and secondary analyses of national and registry data sets. Several papers describe innovative research measures and methods, exciting developments in the field. Review and publication of the protocols of current studies serve to enhance research integrity and rigor, and guide next steps in future studies.
