Overprotective parenting may hinder recovery among offspring with schizophrenia

Parental overprotective tendencies appeared associated with hindered recovery among offspring with schizophrenia, according to study results published in PLOS One.

“It has been reported that poor parental bonding, which can be classified into two distinct types, namely, ‘low care’ and ‘overprotective attitude,’ is associated with an earlier age at initial hospitalization and early re-admission in patients with schizophrenia,” Junpei Ishii, of the department of psychiatry at Jikei University Katsushika Medical Center in Japan, and colleagues wrote. “A low level of attachment to parents has been reported to be associated with a history of childhood abuse, while attachment to close adults is associated with alleviation of trauma-related symptoms. Although the relationship between parental bonding during childhood and psychotic symptoms has been investigated in previous studies, little is known about the relationship between parental bonding and the longitudinal course in patients with schizophrenia.”

In the current study, the researchers sought to investigate the links between these two types of parental bonding and the functional recovery of patients with schizophrenia. They registered 79 patients and assessed parental bonding according to the Japanese version of the Parental Bonding Instrument. They also assessed whether patients exhibited recovery or non-recovery according to results of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Global Assessment of Functioning scale at 0 and 24 weeks.

Ishii and colleagues found that 36% of participants showed recovery from schizophrenia at the end of the 24-week follow-up period. “Overprotective attitude” score appeared significantly higher among those in the non-recovery group; however, the score for “low care” was not higher among this group. Results of exploratory logistic regression analysis suggested that only “overprotective attitude” of the parents was predictive of non-recovery. Further, the researchers reported a significant negative correlation between “low care” and “overprotective attitude” only among the non-recovery group.

“All the data were obtained from the patients, but not the parents,” Ishii and colleagues wrote. “Therefore, the data could be biased because of potential cognitive dysfunction and/or psychotic symptoms in the patients with schizophrenia.”