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Does chronic illness increase children's risk for impaired peer relationships? A longitudinal exploration of the relationship between childhood asthma and social vulnerability
Abstract
This study investigated the social vulnerability of children with asthma in a large, longitudinal, national sample. Data from the 1994 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample (NLSY-C) were analyzed to identify differences in the quality of peer relationships between children with asthma and a comparison group of healthy peers. The 1994 NLSY-C sample consists of 6,974 children younger than 15 years old who were available for interview and assessment in 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, or 1994. In the current study, 262 children with asthma and a matched comparison group of healthy peers between the ages of 4 years and 14 years in 1994 were selected from the 1994 NLSY-C. The study explored ways in which specific child (gender), family (financial status and emotional support), and illness (degree of medical limitation) characteristics were related to social vulnerability, and described those relationships over a four-year time period between 1990 and 1994. In addition, it examined the degree of congruence between mother and child reports of social vulnerability. Results suggest that children with chronic illness, in general, are at no greater social risk than their healthy peers. Factors associated with social risk appear to differ for children with asthma and their peers, and the extent of medical limitation may be related to chronically-ill children's vulnerability. Increased family support and economic opportunity may function as protective factors for children, whether or not they have a chronic illness. In addition, the current findings indicate that, despite moderate stability, there are significant changes in social vulnerability over time. Results augment recent evidence that mothers and their children view the quality of the children's social relationships differently, and provide substantial support for the growing belief among pediatric psychologists that multi-method, longitudinal studies are needed to improve understanding of how children cope successfully with illness.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Developmental psychology|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Flood, Mary Fran, "Does chronic illness increase children's risk for impaired peer relationships? A longitudinal exploration of the relationship between childhood asthma and social vulnerability" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9902956.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9902956