[Attitudes towards child rearing in mothers of children with congenital heart defects].

By means of a questionnaire addressed to parents the authors investigated training attitudes of 18 mothers of children aged 6-14 years (8 boys and 10 girls) operated during preschool age for congenital cardiac disease. They compared their attitudes with those of healthy children and children suffering from juvenile chronic arthritis. All mothers preferred democratic training with stimulation of the children's activities. They refused authoritative and restricting attitudes. Mothers of children with congenital heart disease did not display excessively centered relations to the child, as compared with other mothers nor exaggerated protectiveness. A problem remains, however, the feeling of self-sacrifice for the child which, contrary to the two other groups, was manifested by 33% of the mothers.