Rejection and Learned Helplessness in Mental Illness

This study highlights the need for increased understanding of the impacts and challenges of parental rejection on the human well-being, the importance of prevention, and education in the very early stages of rearing. This study particularly focused on persons diagnosed with mental illness. Studies suggest that patients with a mental illness have often experienced parental rejection, but there is a dearth of research examining remembered parental rejection and learned helplessness in mental health patients. The theoretical lens for this work was drawn from Bolby’s adult attachment theory, Seligman’s learned helplessness, and from Rohner’s parental-acceptance-rejection theory. The purpose of the study was to address the relationship between remembered parental rejection in childhood and Learned Helplessness. Implications for positive social change include understanding the important impact of parental positive rearing on the emotional development of children across the lifespan; the need to continue to advance treatments for those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and the need to continue to search for other possible avenues to prevent mental illnesses from occurring.