Mothers of children with asthma: perceptions of parenting stress and the mother-child relationship.

In a study of 41 mothers of asthmatic children ranging from 8 to 13 years of age, perceived parenting stress was greater and the quality of the mother-child relationship more problematic than for a comparison group of mothers with healthy children. These mothers also perceived certain areas of behavioral difficulty in their asthmatic children that were greater than those of children in a comparative sample of mothers. The findings suggested that mothers and their asthmatic children may be at risk for a variety of individual and relational problems.