Lived experience of growing up with a parent suffering from schizophrenia in the Chinese context: a study in Shanghai
精神分裂症(簡稱精分)是一種常見且嚴重的精神疾病,它對患者及其家人的生活有著毀滅性的影響。在西方國家,研究者已經對精分患者子女的經歷研究了許多年,得出的結論在政府以及社會工作者幫助這些家庭時起到重要的參考作用。然而,在中國這個問題被忽視了,目前針對這個群體的、學術規範的研究還沒有在中國大陸展開。鑒於中西巨大的社會和文化差異,我們不可以照搬西方學者的研究成果。為了填補這方面的知識空缺,我們在上海展開了對精神分裂症患者子女經歷的質化研究。 ; 本文的資料來自八個家庭的成員對於相關經驗的敘述。我們從三個層面來探究這些青少年的特殊經歷,包括他們對家長的經歷、他們從患病與健康家長處感受到的養育模式、以及他們所經歷的擴展家庭和社會的支持。 ; 我們的研究發現包括:1)青少年對家長疾病的適應經歷了三個階段:漠然、焦慮、消極應對。2)患病家長大多對孩子溫暖有餘、管教不足。健康家長對孩子的管教很大程度上取決於家庭經濟情況。當經濟情況惡劣時他們往往忽視孩子的成長需求3)支援系統作用缺失。 ; 基於以上發現,本文提煉出三個主題:在惡劣成長環境中掙扎、消極應對、缺乏支持。我們提倡為這些家庭提供社會服務。 ; Schizophrenia is a serious and common mental illness which has devastating effects on those affected by schizophrenia, as well as family members including their offspring. In western countries, the topic about the experience of offspring living with a parent diagnosed with schizophrenia has been studied for many years. The outcomes are useful references to the government and social workers in helping these families. However, this topic has been neglected in the Chinese context. A well-designed qualitative study has never been carried out in mainland China. The result from western researcher cannot be used in China due to the vast differences in society and culture. To fill in the gap, a qualitative research was carried out in Shanghai to study children's experience of parental schizophrenia. ; This paper is based on the narratives elicited from eight families, including the parents diagnosed with schizophrenia, the adolescent children, and sometimes other family members. We studied the experience of this special group of adolescents, which contains the experience of their parent's mental illness, the parenting from both the parent diagnosed with schizophrenia and the healthy parent, as well as the support from extended family and the society. ; Our findings include: 1) Adolescents' attitude towards parental schizophrenia can be divided into three phases: indifference, anxiety, and finally passive coping. The help they can provide for their parents with schizophrenia is very limited in most cases. 2) The parenting they ...