Abstract

The purpose of this study was firstly to examine the changes in familial relationships and characteristics of psychiatric patients' families among different generations, and secondly, to compare how these differ from the normal families. A total of 702 families, 235 families of psychiatric patients and 467 normal families, were involved in this study. In order to investigate the generational differences, the families were categorized into two groups based on the subject's age, those under 39 were categorized as the younger generation group and those over or equal to 40 as the older generation group. The Family Mental Health Test was used to evaluate the familial relationships and characteristics for each subject. The results indicated that within the psychiatric family group, there were no significant differences between the generational groups regarding the following factors: conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, inner openness of the family, parental over-protectiveness toward children, and outer openness to the social network. There were, however, significant differences in emotional stability, family cohesiveness, sexual satisfaction between the couple, patriarchal characteristic of the household, and parental attachment to children. Within the normal families, all other factors were significantly different between the generational groups except two which were parental over-protectiveness and reverence for parents.