About
source: the mighty.com
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Roles: Parents and Family
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Family is the fundamental ground for children’s learning and development (Reedtz 2019, p.2). The learning process for children starts from home, where parent(s) are recognised as the children’s first teacher (Cordry & Wilson 2004, p. 56).
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However, the traditional family unit and parental function to support and nurture their children (Gilles 2005, p. 70), can be influenced by many factors.
One key factor that impacts parental function and support is mental illness in adults, which is prevalent in current Australian society.
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Figure 1.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (McLennan 1997, p. 18) The nation-wide study of mental health and well-being of adults (SMHWA) led by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (McLennan 1997, p. 18), shows that 17.7 % of Australians experience mental disorders.
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Characteristics: |
How can we tell the difference of children of parents with a mental illness from other children with mentally healthy parents?
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Further to the above signals and negative personal characteristics, numerous studies on children of parents with a mental illness with similar considerations strongly showed a significant finding of common characteristic of resilience
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(Beardslee & Podorefsky 1988, p. 63; Reupert & Mayberry 2010, p. 631; Werner 1997, p. 103; Grové, Reupert and Maybery 2013, p. 378; Riebschleger et al. 2107, p. 2; Boursnell 2011, p. 26; Werner 1997, p. 103; Grove, Rupert & Mayberry 2015, p. 177; Oyserman & Mowbray 2000, p. 296; NCBI, 2019; Reedtz et al. 2019, p. 2).
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