Background: A family history of mental illness, particularly parental depression, is a risk factor for mental health difficulties in young people, with this heightened risk extending into adulthood. Evidence suggests low rates of formal mental health support in children/adolescents with depressed parents, but it is unknown whether this pattern persists into adulthood and applies to informal support. Aims: We examined the prevalence of formal and informal mental health support accessed by young adults with recurrently depressed parents. We identified factors associated with access to different support, reported satisfaction with support and identified potential facilitators/barriers to access. Methods: A mixed-method study comprising 144 young adults (mean age=23 years, range=18-28 years) who completed psychiatric assessments and reported on their use of mental health support. Regression analyses explored predictors for support. A focus group examined facilitators and barriers. Results: Young adults accessed a range of formal (29%) and informal (56%) support. Among those with psychiatric disorder, nearly half had not accessed formal support and one-fifth had not accessed any support. Predictors of support included psychiatric disorder, severity indicators (e.g. self-harm/suicidal thoughts, impairment), and demographic factors (e.g. education, gender). Predictors varied by type of support. Most participants reported satisfaction with support. Facilitators included role models, public mental health discussions, and practitioner training. Barriers included identifying difficulties, stigma, service limitations, and family/friends experiences. Conclusions: Young adults at high risk of mental disorders accessed various mental health support. However, many did not access/receive support when needed. Further work is required to improve access to tailored support.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

The work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/R004609/1) and The Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, established with support from the Wolfson Foundation. The cohort was established with funding from the Jules Thorn Charitable Trust (JTA/06). The fourth wave of data collection was funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/R004609/1). RBJ was supported by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) Post Doctoral Fellowship programme (NIHR-PDF-2018). TL was supported by a NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF-2021-13-010). BM was supported by a Medical Research Foundation fellowship (MRF-058-0017-F-MARS-C0869).

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The study was approved by the Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee for Wales (reference 06/MRE09/48) and the School of Medicine Ethics Committee, Cardiff University (reference 18/12).

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Due to ethical restrictions, data collected at assessment waves 1 to 3 cannot be made openly available. Supporting data collected at assessment wave 4 is openly available from the Cardiff University data repository at http://doi.org/10.17035/d.2023.0263728184.

http://doi.org/10.17035/d.2023.0263728184