Correlates of mothers who prefer control over their hospitalized children's care

The purpose of this study was to profile mothers who prefer control over their hospitalized children's care. The subjects were 100 mothers in a private community hospital pediatric unit and 284 mothers in a children's hospital. The findings showed significant correlations in both groups between the desire for control and four of the six variables studied: age of the mother, age of the child, number of children in the family, and amount of time the mother spent in the hospital. The other two variables, ethnic background and prior experience with a hospitalized child, were each significant in only one of the two samples. The study provided guidelines for the pediatric nurse to use in assessing mothers' preferences for control over their hospitalized children's care.