Mental health, coping and family‐functioning in parents of young people with obsessive‐compulsive disorder and with anxiety disorders

OBJECTIVE: To compare mental health, coping and family-functioning in parents of young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, and no known mental health problems. METHOD: Parents of young people with OCD (N = 28), other anxiety disorders (N = 28), and no known mental health problems (N = 62) completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993), the Coping Responses Inventory (Moos, 1990), and the McMaster family assessment device (Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983). RESULTS: Parents of children with OCD and anxiety disorders had poorer mental health and used more avoidant coping than parents of non-clinical children. There were no group differences in family-functioning. CONCLUSION: The similarities across the parents of clinically referred children suggest that there is a case for encouraging active parental involvement in the treatment of OCD in young people.