Parental stress influences the age of a child’s first psychiatric hospital admission

Researchers have shown that parenting stress influences the age of a child’s first admission for psychiatric inpatient treatment. A child’s age at time of first admission for psychiatric inpatient treatment has been shown to be a predictor of future admissions, with younger children being more likely to experience repeat hospitalisations. Knowing what variables influence the age of first admission would therefore help identify children at greatest risk of hospitalisation. To date, no study has examined the effect of family variables as predictors of age of initial psychiatric hospital admission. Since parenting stress has been associated to the development of childhood behaviour problems, the researchers sought to investigate the effect of parenting stress on the age of first psychiatric admission. More specifically, they examined if total parenting stress and life stress, followed by specific dimensions of parenting stress — such as competence, isolation, attachment difficulties, health issues, role restriction, depression and lack of spousal support — were in any way related to a child’s age upon admission for psychiatric inpatient treatment. They assessed the caregivers of children (median age 9.05 years, 71% male) who were consecutively admitted to an acute child psychiatric inpatient facility using a battery of questionnaires designed to assess both child and parenting behaviours. Only data for caregivers of children who were admitted for the first-time were included into the study. Respondents comprised mothers (78.5%), fathers (7%), grandparents (8%), and aunts, uncles, with legal guardians making up the remaining 6.5%. Higher levels of externalising behaviour problems were found to be associated with younger ages for hospitalised children, whereas higher levels of internalising behaviour problems were associated with older ages of admission. Fite et al. pointed out that since internalising symptoms are often not apparent to others until later in childhood and adolescence when children begin to verbalise their symptoms “it is not surprising that internalising behaviour symptoms were found to be related to children being older rather than younger upon their initial admission.” After controlling for internalising and externalising behaviour problems, analyses revealed only two sources of parenting stress were found to be related to the child’s age upon admission: social isolation and attachment difficulties. Higher levels of parental social isolation — such as a lack of emotional support from family and friends — were associated with younger ages upon admission. Fite et al. noted that when social support is deficient, parenting can be overwhelming. As a result, parenting behaviour suffers which in turn leads to increases in childhood behaviour problems. In contrast, parental attachment difficulties were found to be associated with older children upon admission. The authors proposed that caregivers who are emotionally detached from their children are less likely to be aware of their child’s behavioural and emotional difficulties. “Their lack of awareness may lead to the utilisation of inpatient treatment later rather than earlier in the child’s development,” they claimed. In summary, the results of this study revealed that parenting stress does influence a child’s age of first admission for psychiatric inpatient services....