Parental and partner role functioning and personal recovery in bipolar disorder

Objectives: Bipolar disorder research has primarily focused on clinical outcomes but there is increasing understanding of the importance of personal recovery. This study aimed to explore the relationship between functioning in key social roles including parenting and intimate relationships with personal recovery. Method: Participants with bipolar disorder (N = 393) were recruited to participate in an online survey. Participants provided clinical information and completed measures of personal recovery, parental and intimate relationship functioning. Results: Parental functioning and intimate relationship functioning were found to be significantly associated with recovery scores with higher scores being associated with greater recovery. Parental functioning was also found to have a predictive effect, with higher parental functioning predicting greater recovery scores. Conclusions: This study suggests that greater parental functioning may have an important role in the experience of personal recovery for people living with bipolar disorder. Future studies should further assess how supporting parenting may contribute recovery outcomes.