Psychosocial typology of the CF family system

From the psychological point of view we focused our attention to the study of chosen dimensions of the family systems in a group of 72 parents a 27 matrimonial pairs. The typology of the families was carried out, familial and matrimonial strengths the incidence of life events in the family, the way of coping with unfavourable influences inside and outside the family and the quality of life were followed up. We used the battery of tests by Olson and coworkers (1983): FACES II (Family Adaptatibility and Cohesion Evaluation Scales), Family Strengths, ENRICH, FILE (Family Inventory of Life Events), F-COPES (Family Coping Strategies), QL (Quality of Life). As for family functions in CF the risk groups are young marriages up to the 6th year of duration, age of parents up to 30 years, parents older than 41 years, families with 1 child only, the families where the disease has a severe course. Optimal situation in familial functions is observed in parents aged 31 to 40 years, and in families with 2 children. Valuable can be the finding that 3 age differentiated groups of parents (up to 30 years) show a typical adaptation behaviour to the presence of severe hereditary chronic and lethal disease of the child.