Children's and adolescents' perception of their asthma bronchiale

The present study examines the perception of asthma bronchiale in a large sample of 382 children and adolescents (mean age = 12.5 years) across three different treatment settings (outpatient, short-term rehabilitation, residential treatment) by using a revised child version of the 'Asthma Problem Behavior Checklist.' A PCA reveals two factors (eigenvalues: 26.3; 4.2; 0.9 ..) with a complementary structure: 'appraisal of asthma-related distress' (explained variance: 48.5%) and 'appraisal of resources in coping with asthma-related distress' (explained variance: 20.9%). Implications for clinical psychological assessment of young patients with asthma and the congruence with the LAZARUS transactional conceptualization of stress and coping are discussed.