Personality Factors and Certain Attitudes Toward Child Rearing Among Parents of Asthmatic Children

Abstract

Matched samples of parents of asthmatic children and parents of children suffering from diverse ailments excluding asthma were studied by means of the MMPI, U.S.C. Parent Attitude Survey, and a personal interview. It was hypothesized that parents of the asthmatic children would possess distinctive personality characteristics. Differences between Pd scores of mothers of asthmatic children and control mothers provided the only statistically significant difference in the expected direction, i.e. scores reflecting emotional instability or attitudes toward child rearing found to be characteristic of the parents of problem children. Both the asthmatic and control group mean MMPI scores rose consistently above the mean of the general population (in the direction of neurotic deviation.) Fifty-five per cent of the mothers reported that asthmatic attacks sometimes or frequently follow a nervous upset.