The purpose of this study was to understand offspring’s experiences of living with their depressed mothers and, especially, to understand how these offspring disclose the information about having a depressed mother to others. Eight in-depth, in-person interviews were conducted with adult children of depressed mothers. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for the analysis. Grounded theory methodology was used to collect and analyze the data. The analysis identified three types of disclosing: “disclosing to self as discovery,” “first disclosing,” and “selective disclosing.” The results indicate that disclosing information about having a depressed mother occurs as a sequence of handling information over time rather than as a single episode. As the children of depressed mothers grew up and began to increase their understanding of their mother’s depression, their way of disclosing their mothers’ depression changed, as did what they disclosed, where, when, and for what purposes. Most significantly, what is disclosed changed remarkably over time, depending on the offspring’s perception of the problem, safety, the purpose of disclosing, and the anticipated consequences of disclosing. Implications for health policies and health services for children of depressed mothers are discussed.
Session #1214 - Mental Health: Children & Adolescents
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)