'You'd think this roller coaster was never going to stop': Experiences of adult children of parents with serious mental illness

Aims and objectives. The aims of this qualitative study were to explore the experience of being an adult child of a parent with serious mental illness and how adult children have coped with their experience.Background. Children of parents with serious mental illness are a potentially vulnerable group because of risk factors associated with parental mental illness. While there has been considerable research into factors that may strengthen or impair their well-being, there has been little exploration of the subjective experience of growing up with parental mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.Design.