Associations between the mental health and social networks of children and parents in single-parent families. A comparison between a clinical group and a control group.

The parents and children in single-parent families were studied. A group of 39 children ages 9-16 years who had been patients at a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic and a control group with an equal number of children were interviewed together with their single parent regarding social network and mental health. The networks of children and parents in the control group were more similar to each other than the networks of parents and children in the patient group. The crosswise influence of parents' mental health, children's behavioral disturbances and social networks showed associations between parents' mental health and children's behavioural disturbances, between parents's social networks and children's behavioural disturbances and between parents' mental health and their social networks. There was, on the other hand, no association between parents' mental health and the social networks of their children.