Parental attitude and role perception in families of asthmatic children.

The attitude of the parents of 30 asthmatic children, was studied in four subjects: 1) Parental behavior, 2) modes of coping with every day events, 3) parent-child communication, and 4) anxiety and fears towards the child's health. The following situations were observed: The parents of asthmatic children showed a higher level of anxiety towards the health of the children in comparison with parents in control group (p less than 0.01). The coping modes of Israeli born parents scored higher than parents born in North Africa or Asia. Parents from other countries scored the lowest of the three (p = 0.004). The behavior pattern of parents of children with mild asthma was more controlled than parents of children with severe asthma (p less than 0.05). Chronic and prolonged asthma cause a decrease in communication between the parents and child (P less than 0.05). The number of children in the family has a direct effect upon the degree of the parent's anxiety towards the child's health. Parents who have 1-2 children, one of which is asthmatic, were found to be more anxious than parents with 3-4 children. The above mentioned data influence the parental behavior, which was better when the first or second child was asthmatic than if he was the third or fourth child in the family. Coping with chronic disease of the asthmatic child should include medical and behavioral education of his parents by the medical and paramedical staff in the hospital and in the respiratory clinic.