Table 2.

Parents' explanations for cause of psychiatric illness among offspring, and quotes illustrating the consequences of that explanation on guilt.

Explanation for cause of illness	Concept underlying guilt	Illustrative quote
Genetics only	Responsibility for illness due to passing on “bad genes”	“It came from my side, I've got the guilt … if I hadn't had him, he wouldn't be like that. If I had known more at the time I probably wouldn't have had any children because of what I've seen happen to him. I didn't think about this being passed on when I was 23 years old. You think, this will never happen to me … I would have made different decisions if I had known.”(Austin and Honer, 2004)
Environment only	Responsibility for illness due to having been a “bad parent”	“The feeling that we somehow caused this is strong. This happens because we are judged harshly due to our child's behaviors. I was lectured by family members about our parenting skills.” (Selkirk et al., 2009)