FAMILY AND MENTAL HEALTH (BY MATERIALS OF FOREIGN RESEARCH)

Sudin Sergey Aleksandrovich, Candidate of sociological sciences, associate professor, sub-department of general sociology and social work, Lobachevsly State University of Nizhny Novgorod (23 Gagarina avenue, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), sudjin@mail.ru

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Background. Mental health is one of the key factors of a stable family, a guarantee and a base of its functionality. If we speak about intergenerational and partner relations, a progressing mental disorder will anyway have a destructive effect on a family. On the other hand, a family may act as a protective factor in development of mental health of all its members. The aim of the study is to analyze sociological aspects of examinations of families suffering from mental diseases.
Materials and methods. The provisions of the article are based on results of works by American and west European scholars: M. Rutter, K. Merikangas, A. Lenz, A. M. Möller-Leimkühler and others. The article appears to be a review of scientific literature aiming at revealing a degree of development of the sociological area abroad that is new for Russian sociology.
Results and conclusions. The author considered various aspects of family functioning in the context of a mental disease of one of relatives. The researcher analyzed such parts of family life as transformation of parents’ behavior after occurrence of a disease, mental disorder and its effect on sexual life, rearrangement of family roles, as well as parenthood as a factor of mental health and its destabilization. Thus, the influence of mental disorders on a family is extremely great and has a multiaspect nature. It depends on a number of factors, such as type and duration of diseases, degree of affinity with the sick, availability of resources at family’s possession to overcome a disease etc. Sociology of mental health allows to expand the scope of understanding the features of such families in order to elaborate the corresponding social practices.

transformation of interfamily interaction as a result of a mental disease, sociology of mental health, family sociology, childhood, interpersonal interaction.

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