Predictors of family resilience, emotional, behavioral, and developmental concerns and emergency room visits for children with asthma.

Abstract

Introduction: The current study fills a gap in the literature by examining relations among physical health and resilience factors, family functioning, emergency visits, and mental health problems for youth with asthma. The study purpose was to assess associations among four predictors-asthma severity, body mass index (BMI), having an adult mentor, and ability to make and keep friends-and 3 three outcomes-family resilience, emotional, behavioral and developmental concerns, and emergency room (ER) visits among youth with asthma.

Method: The sample included 2,589 youth with asthma between 10 and 17 years old from the 2017-2018 National Survey of Children's Health. Multivariable logistic regressions examined associations between asthma severity, BMI, having an adult mentor, ability to make and keep friends and two outcomes: family resilience, and emotional behavioral and developmental concerns. A multinomial logistic regression examined the relationship between predictor variables and number of ER visits.

Results: Findings indicated having a mentor, being able to make/keep friends, and being underweight, average, or overweight compared to being obese were related to having family resilience. Making/keeping friends was a protective factor for emotional behavioral and developmental concerns. Having a mentor was related to higher levels of emotional behavioral and developmental concerns than not having a mentor. Youth who had mentors and friendship skills were less likely to have ER visits than youth with no mentors and difficulty with friendships. Youth with mild asthma severity and who were not obese had lower levels of ER visits than those with moderate/severe asthma or obesity.

Discussion: Child level protective factors were related to higher levels of family resilience and fewer ER visits for children with asthma. Further research to identify risk and protective factors is needed to develop interventions for youth with asthma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).