Conflictual maternal attitudes towards asthmatic children

Conflictual maternal attitudes with regard to eating problems, dependency and mood of asthmatic and matched non-asthmatic children of school age with similar personal and familial allergic predispositions were examined. The maternal attitudes, measured on the Mother-Child Questionnaire, were regarded as conflictual when significant low difference scores were found between eating well and eating badly: autonomy and dependency, and between cheerfulness and depression. Statistical testing on the difference scores of these categories in the two groups of children showed significant maternal conflicts in their evaluation of eating and depression of asthmatic boys. Implications of these findings were discussed.