Maternal feelings towards asthmatic children

In this study asthmatic and nonasthmatic children of elementary school age were compared. They were matched for similar familial and individual constitutional allergic backgrounds and similar sociodemographic data. In addition to testing the children, the mothers were tested for their feelings about the children, the fathers and their own childhood family. The main purpose in this part of a wider study on childhood asthma, was to measure maternal feelings towards asthmatic children by determining with which figures in her childhood family the mothers identify the children. There were no differences between the two groups of children in birth order, number of siblings of the mothers and numbers of siblings of the children. The asthmatic children were clearly more frequently identified with positive figures and less with negative figures from the mother's childhood family than the nonasthmatic children. This finding was discussed in relation to previously described findings on these asthmatic children and their mothers.