Family functioning and juvenile chronic physical illness in Northern Russia

To study family functioning of adolescents with chronic physical illnesses and factors related to it. The following research questions were addressed: (i) if families with adolescents with chronic physical illnesses were at increased risk for problematic functioning compared to the healthy control families; (ii) was disease severity associated with family dysfunction; and (iii) did family functioning level differ in three disease groups (diabetes, asthma and epilepsy).

Self-report family inventory and socio-economic status questions were individually completed by 148 adolescents with physical illnesses aged 13-16 years and their mothers; medical data were obtained from the files at the outpatient clinics. Comparative data were collected from a group of 301 schoolchildren.

Overall there were no differences found in functioning of families with physically ill adolescents compared to controls. Family functioning was significantly associated with the number of disease-specific (disease severity and duration) and non-disease (socio-economic status and family type) factors.

In our study, families with physically ill adolescents showed considerable resilience and tolerance to the changes in habitual functioning of the family unit. While greater disease severity, longer disease duration, as well as single-parent household were the factors that contributed to the family dysfunction.