The Quality of Mother-Child Interaction in EarlyAdolescence

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.

Autorentext

Elizabeth M. McCarroll, Ph.D.: Studied Human Development and Family Sciences at University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate; completed graduate degrees in Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas; Assistant professor in the Family Sciences Department at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas.

Klappentext
This work examined associations between health status and the quality of mother-child interactions in early adolescence. It was anticipated that parenting style would differ in families having a child with a chronic illness compared to families with a healthy child. It was also expected that parenting practices would differ in families having a child with a chronic illness and families having a healthy child. It was also expected that differences in behavior would be observed between chronically ill and healthy children during mother-child interaction. Finally, it was expected that there would be a difference observed in the quality of mother-child interaction based on weight status and how mother and child matched in their weight status. The sample included 154 European-American adolescents and their mothers, 78 of whom were boys and 76 whom were girls. There were 39 children with some form of chronic illness; 14 of the children had asthma, 8 had diabetes, and 17 of the children had a Body Mass Index that categorized them as overweight. Results indicated the hypothesized differences were not observed for this sample, and several possible explanations for this are discussed.