Are adults with mental illness, with extended social networks, more likely to have positive parenting experiences?
Not necessarily. There are positive and negative aspects to family relationships. Family members may be a primary source of support, or experienced as undermining and disempowering by parents with mental illness. Be sure to investigate the quality or valence of social networks, as well as their depth and breadth. There are likely ethnic and racial variations in care giving and patterns of social support as well. As most studies have been cross-sectional, it is not clear whether mothers with better social networks are more likely to retain custody of children, or whether caring for children provides increased opportunity for social networks to develop (White et al., 1995; Nicholson et al., 2001).
