Maternal Attitudes Associated with the Development of Bronchial Asthma in Children with Atopic Dermatitis

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/73666484s

Abstract

The point of departure of the study is the observation that over fifty per cent of cases of infantile eczema develop asthma in the majority of cases by four years of age. It would be of great clinical vlue to be able to more skillfully predict the development of asthma in cases of atopic dermatitis. It was hypothesized that the mother of the asthmatic child, as compared to the mother of the non-asthmatic child, would show significant differences in her relationship to the child on five specific variables, including dependency, autonomy, aggression, rejection and affection. The subjects of the study are the mothers of ten children, all of whom have a history of infantile eczema. Five of the children developed bronchial asthma before the age of five years and the remaining five are non-asthmatic. Structured interviews with each mother comprised the basic data. These interviews were independently rated for each of the five variables by two judges. Inter-rater reliability was adequate. Mothers of the asthmatic children were found to be more rejecting than the mothers of the non-asthmatic children to a statistically significant degree.

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