Family Stress and the Precipitation of Psychiatric Disorder

Abstract

A study of family data among immigrant West Indian and Native British patients in Birmingham is described. Predisposing factors--unhappy childhood and a family history of mental disorder--were associated with psychiatric illness but not with ethnic origin. Behaviour disorder among children and broken marriages among family members were not associated with psychiatric illness, but are more prevalent among immigrants. These patients did not admit to a greater prevalence of stress (obtained from 11 factors) but it is noteworthy that family stresses predominated among them rather than other stresses which were more prevalent among natives. Inter-personal conflicts within the family were often believed to have been of aetiological significance among immigrants rather than natives who instead reacted to normal life events. Neurotic syndromes resulting from migration-related separation experiences between parents and children are described.