The Relationship between parents' and children’s feelings of helplessness and the child's asthma symptoms

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, 2013.Managing chronic illnesses, such as asthma, includes implementing lifestyle and behavioral changes as well as coping strategies for emotional health. Research related to family functioning and its impact on asthma indicate that adverse family functioning such as negative family climate, family routines, and parent-child interactions may exacerbate children's asthma and are related to increased morbidity. Feelings of helplessness experienced within the family may further exacerbate symptoms. Based on the theory of learned helplessness, individuals who feel there is no connection between their behaviors and outcomes are passive, anxious, depressed, and do not perform well. These feelings have a powerful influence on behavior and emotion, thus, likely impacting asthma morbidity. Only a few studies have assessed feelings of helplessness among individuals with asthma, and no studies have assessed these feelings in young children using self-report. Additionally, little is known about the relationship between feelings of helplessness and asthma morbidity among young children. The objectives of this proposal were to: (1) survey parents and children independently regarding their emotions and feelings of helplessness specific to asthma and examine associations between parent and child report, (2) examine the relationship between parent's report of helplessness and the child's asthma symptoms, and to also examine the relationship between the child's report of helplessness and his/her asthma symptoms, and (3) assess the relationship between the interaction of parent and child helplessness and asthma symptoms using a model that includes main effects and the constructed interaction term. This study found a positive relationship between the child's feelings of helplessness and symptom free days indicating less feelings of helplessness as symptom free days increased. Parents' feelings of helplessness were not related to the child's symptoms. This relationship was true only among those families reporting minimal social support and was not found among families with a lot of support which may indicate a buffering effect of social support among these families. Since stress and family environment has been shown to impact asthma symptoms for some children, this buffering effect of social support should be further explored among families of children with asthma