The Unfit Parent: Six Myths Concerning Dangerousness and Mental Illness

• Date: 01 January 2016
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12200

THE UNFIT PARENT: SIX MYTHS CONCERNING DANGEROUSNESS

AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Brian Van Brunt, Ann A. Zedginidze, and Patti A. Light

There is a pervasive assumption that mental illness equates to dangerousness and violence as it applies to parenting. We exam-

ine this assumption and present a comprehensive literature review of how issues of mental illness impact violence and danger-

ousness. A range of issues is explored, including the unpredictability of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, stress from mental

health problems inhibiting emotional stability, and past in-patient hospitalizations for suicide attempts as they impact parent-

ing. Risk mitigation strategies are also presented.

Practitioner’s Key Points:

While the stress and difficulties of living with a mental illness certainly present challenges for any parent to overcome,

this article answers the larger question, “Does having a mental illness equate with being an unfit parent?”

In order to explore what makes an unfit parent, it is necessary to first operationalize what skills, traits, and abilities fit

parents possess. The article offers a summary of what it means to be a fit parent.

For an individual with mental illness, there may be a risk of unfit parenting or violence. But we can only understand

the actuality when we look at the severity of the mental illness, environmental stressors, and additional risk factors.

We offer a constellation of protective approaches to better assess the risk by attending to competent risk factors, rather

than making broad assumptions concerning mental illness and the ability to parent or proclivity to behave in a violent

fashion.

Keywords: Dangerousness; Family Violence; Mental Health; Mental Illness; Parenting; and Violence.

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

Media portrayals of mental illness rarely cast a positive light on those who are dealing with mental

health concerns in a parenting role. Schreiber’s story of Sybil, Stephen King’s portrayal of Carrie,

and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho present a fairly negative view of mentally ill parents inflicting horror

after horror on their children. In 2013, 60 Minutes explored schizophrenia and violence, providing an

example of the media’s portrayal of mental illness and dangerousness. Watson (2014) describes the

show as “... quite misleading and frankly stigmatizing to those who suffer with mental disorders,

especially those diagnosed with schizophrenia” (p 51). Serper and Bergman (2003) support this idea,

given 90% of persons with mental illness have no history of violence.

Many in the criminal justice community and mental health and law enforcement systems have

had experiences with individuals where mental illness seems to play an immanent role in poor par-

enting or creating a greater risk for dangerousness. They share individual stories around the water

cooler of cases where a parent’s mental illness severely impacted the safety and development of chil-

dren in the home.

The challenge before us is recognizing sensationalized media portrayals and noting that single

case examples are not sufficient to accept the generalization that those with mental illness are unfit

parents. While the stress and difficulties of living with a mental illness certainly present challenges

for any parent to overcome, it leaves the larger question of “does having a mental illness equate with

being an unfit parent?” unanswered. This question is often debated in the court system and can have

devastating outcomes. In fact, “... parents with mental illness are quite vulnerable to losing custody

Correspondence: brian@ncherm.org; az2380@tc.columbia.edu; plig@tjc.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 54 No. 1, January 2016 18–28

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C2016 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts