Interviews with 24 parents link stigma to falling short of good-parent ideals
Weill Cornell and Columbia researchers interviewed 24 parents and tied their stigma to perceived failure at good-parent ideals. The preliminary study in Psychiatric Services describes the stigma; a video intervention meant to reduce it is still under evaluation.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- The children of the interviewed parents had ADHD, depression or substance use problems.
- Participants said stigma arose when they struggled to meet core ideals: emotional support, open communication, boundaries, role modeling and contributing to the child's well-being.
- According to first author Dr. Tim Becker, parents frequently sensed that relatives, teachers, neighbors and health care providers judged them as not doing enough about the child's difficulties.
Why it matters
- exposure Parents who feel looked down upon may be slower to seek help for their child, since earlier research found parental stigma can limit that willingness.
- decision Clinicians writing a care plan are advised to weigh the stigma a parent may carry, because it can bring distress and self-doubt and undermine engagement in treatment.
- constraint Psychoeducation, the usual approach to parental stigma, explains the condition and its treatment but, according to Becker, leaves the day-to-day stigma parents face untouched.
Interviews suit a first question like this one. The 24 parents [1] discussed what made them feel respected as a good parent, how a child's mental health problems threatened that respect, and how they tried to manage the stigma and keep a positive view of themselves [3]. The paper, in Psychiatric Services, comes from work its institutions call preliminary [4][5]. In our view, 24 interviews can describe how stigma works in parents' own terms and cannot say how common it is. The release does not say how the parents were recruited or how many had a child with each condition.
The jump from description to remedy is the researchers' suggestion. They say that supporting parents in meeting those ideals can help parents feel less self-blame and stigmatization [15]. An interview study does not measure whether that happens.
Dr. Tim Becker, the first author and a child psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health's Nichols Cottage, put the case for acting anyway [11]. "To support children, we also need to support parents," he said [7]. He framed the link to child outcomes as an expectation: more empowered parents, he said, "likely lead to better outcomes for children" [14].
Becker also cited earlier research finding that parental stigma is related to greater parental depression and lower quality of life [8]. A relation of that kind has no built-in direction. Stigma could deepen a parent's depression, or a depressed parent could perceive and report more stigma, and the interviews are not built to separate the two.
The test of the self-blame idea is the video Becker and colleagues developed from their analysis of the interviews. An actress plays a parent who talks about the stigma she faced, how she found help for her child and how she gradually regained her sense of being a good parent [10]. The team is evaluating whether the video reduces parental stigma [12]. No results are reported yet.
What to watch
- Results from the evaluation of the video intervention on parental stigma, which would be the first test of the self-blame idea.
- The paper's breakdown of parents by child's condition, which would show whether the themes hold across ADHD, depression and substance use.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence38
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Researchers conducted interviews with 24 parents who had a child with ADHD, depression or substance use problems.
- [2]
Participants described stigma as arising from their struggles to meet the core ideals of good parenting: emotionally supporting their child, maintaining open communication, establishing appropriate boundaries, serving as a positive role model and contributing to their child's overall well-being.
- [3]
Participants discussed what factors made them feel respected as a good parent, how their child's mental health problems threatened this respect and contributed to parental stigma by undermining their identity as a good parent, and how they tried to manage and reduce this stigma and maintain a positive self-identity.
- [4]
Parents of children with mental health problems may experience stigma when the ideals that matter most to being considered a good parent are perceived as not being met, according to preliminary research led by Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators.
- [5]
The study was published in Psychiatric Services.
- [6]
Parents often felt judged by relatives, teachers, neighbors and health care providers for not doing enough to prevent or address their child's mental health issues.
- [7]
"To support children, we also need to support parents," said the study's first author Dr. Tim Becker.
- [8]
Prior research has found that parental stigma is related to greater parental depression and lower quality of life.
- [9]
Traditionally, work to reduce stigma focuses on psychoeducation, in which clinicians explain a child's condition, its symptoms and treatments, but this does not address the day-to-day stigma parents face because their child is struggling.
- [10]
Becker and colleagues are studying a video intervention developed from their analyses of the interviews, in which an actress portrays a parent of a child with mental health problems and describes her experience with stigma, how she got help for her child and how, over time, she restored her sense of being a good parent.
- [11]
Dr. Tim Becker is first author of the study, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine and a child psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health's Nichols Cottage, an inpatient unit for adolescents.
- [12]
The researchers are evaluating whether the video intervention reduces parental stigma.
- [13]
Prior research has found that parental stigma can limit the parent's willingness to seek help for their child.
- [14]
Becker said "more empowered parents likely lead to better outcomes for children."
- [15]
The researchers suggest that supporting parents in fulfilling these qualities can help parents feel less self-blame and stigmatization for their child's mental health problems.
- [16]
When creating a care plan for a child with mental health challenges, clinicians should consider the stigma parents may be experiencing because it can lead to distress and self-doubt about their parenting abilities and undermine engagement in treatment.
Get this ledger inside ChatGPT. Ask about any of our stories and the answer brings its figure, each claim’s verdict and the sources. Free, no account.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgChildren's mental health struggles may expose parents to stigma tied to parenting ideals
1 article · October 14, 2026
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.