Huan Wang,1,* Xing Xie,2,* Zuowei Li,3 Lian Xue,4 Qiaoling Liao5 

1The First Department of Psychosomatic Diseases, the Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, 621000, People’s Republic of China; 2Mental Health Center of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China; 3Nursing Department, the Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, 621000, People’s Republic of China; 4The Second Department of Psychosomatic Diseases, the Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, 621000, People’s Republic of China; 5The Second Department of Severe Psychiatric, the Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, 621000, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Qiaoling Liao, The second department of severe Psychiatric, the Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, No. 190, Jiannan Road, Youxian District, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, 621000, People’s Republic of China, Email qqliao2009@163.com

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the status of family functioning and dissatisfaction of family function from the perception of adolescents with affective disorders and explore associated factors.
Methods: This was a multicentric cross-sectional study conducted from April 2022 to February 2023. Adolescents with affective disorders were surveyed in representative samples drawn from three hospitals in Sichuan province, China. Data were obtained from 235 participants regarding their demographic characteristics, family characteristics, disease-related characteristics, and family functioning.
Results: The study found family functioning and its’ dissatisfaction both lower than national norms from the perspectives of adolescents. Younger age, single-parent family, and reconstituted family were predictors of not close of cohesion. Younger age, lower educational level of father, and reconstituted family were associated with less change of flexibility. Less times of hospitalizations, higher educational level of father, stem family were more satisfy with cohesion. Higher educational level of father, and stem family were also associated with greater satisfaction with flexibility.
Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the family function of adolescents of affective disorders was poor, more attention should be paid to it. Age, family structure, number of hospitalizations and the educational level of father were influencing factors of family functioning. Therefore, it is important for medical worker to assess demographic and family characteristics of adolescents with affective disorders. Younger children, children of reconstituted family and single-parent family, children with repeated hospitalizations and fathers of lower level of education should be given emphasized in implementation of interventions. Based on the evaluation results, personalized family therapy has been proved to be an affective measure and could be used in clinical work.

Keywords: affective disorders, adolescent, family functioning