The Quality of Mother-child Interaction in Earlyadolescence: a Comparison of Chronically Ill and Healthy Children

This work examined associations between health statusand the quality of mother-child interactions in earlyadolescence. It was anticipated that parenting stylewould differ in families having a child with achronic illness compared to families with a healthychild. It was also expected that parenting practiceswould differ in families having a child with achronic illness and families having a healthy child. It was also expected that differences in behaviorwould be observed between chronically ill and healthychildren during mother-child interaction. Finally, itwas expected that there would be a differenceobserved in the quality of mother-child interactionbased on weight status and how mother and childmatched in their weight status. The sample included154 European-American adolescents and their mothers,78 of whom were boys and 76 whom were girls. Therewere 39 children with some form of chronic illness;14 of the children had asthma, 8 had diabetes, and 17of the children had a Body Mass Index thatcategorized them as overweight. Results indicated thehypothesized differences were not observed for thissample, and several possible explanations for thisare discussed.