Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
Spring 5-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Psychology
Degree Name
Master of Science
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Richard Beck
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Scott Perkins
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Cherisse Flanagan
Abstract
The subjective experiences of offspring of mentally ill parents have resulted in the development and absence of various components of well-being. However, there are very few studies examining levels of self-efficacy as a component of well-being within offspring of mentally ill parents. Given the evidence of lower levels of resiliency among offspring of mentally ill parents, this study proposed to evaluate the relationship between self-efficacy and offspring of mentally ill parents. Two-hundred and fifty-seven students in an introductory psychology course completed two measures assessing self-efficacy and resiliency. Among the 257 students, 27 identified with a mentally ill parent. It was hypothesized that levels of self-efficacy and resiliency would be lower among offspring of mentally ill parents than offspring with mentally healthy parents. It was also hypothesized that a statistically significant positive correlation would be observed for self-efficacy with resiliency. Additionally, it was predicted that a statistically significant negative correlation would be observed for self-efficacy with the number of years lived with a mentally ill parent and the impact of a mentally ill parent. An independent samples t-test, along with one-tailed correlations were computed to test hypotheses. With regard to both self-efficacy and resiliency, results did not show a significant difference between offspring with mentally ill parents in comparison to those with mentally healthy parents. Self-efficacy showed a significant positive correlation with resiliency as predicted; however, no significant correlation for self-efficacy with the number of years lived with a mentally ill parent nor the impact of a mentally ill parent was observed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Motsenbocker, Craig M., "Self-Efficacy in Offspring of Mentally Ill Parents" (2017). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 66.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/66