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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access originally published online on October 3, 2006
Journal of Pediatric Psychology 2007 32(4):417-426; doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsl031
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Impact of Severity of a Child's Chronic Condition on the Functioning of Two-Parent Families

Nicola Rodrigues1 and Joän M. Patterson2

1Department of Family Social Science and 2School of Public Health, University of Minnesota

All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joän M. Patterson, PHD Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454. E-mail: joan.patterson{at}epi.umn.edu.


  Abstract

Objective To examine the impact of the severity of a child's chronic condition on family functioning from the perspectives of mothers and fathers and to compare their reports with the functioning of families with healthy children. Methods Mothers and fathers in two-parent families of 160 infants and 102 pre-adolescents with a wide range of chronic health conditions (noncategorical approach) completed standard self-report inventories. Results The families of children with chronic conditions functioned as well or better compared with normative data for families with healthy children. The only significant differences between mothers’ and fathers’ reports of family functioning were a greater negative impact on role performance reported by mothers of infants and pre-adolescents and a great negative impact on affective expression reported by fathers of pre-adolescents. Conclusions Overall, very little of the variance in family functioning was explained by severity of the child's chronic condition in this sample of middle-class, two-parent families.

Key words: chronic condition severity; family functioning; mother–father comparisons.

Received December 1, 2005; revision received April 27, 2006; revision received August 17, 2006; accepted August 22, 2006


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