Stress in families of children with myelomeningocele.

Three aspects of stress were investigated in 56 families with a child with myelomeningocele and in 53 matched comparison families. Children with myelomeningocele were found to have lower self-concepts than the comparison children, but this did not apply to the siblings in the two groups. Severity of handicap was related to marital satisfaction, in that parents of more severely handicapped children had higher levels of marital satisfaction than parents of less severely involved children. The findings imply that ways should be found of improving the self-concepts of children with myelomeningocele, and of examining interrelationships between the child's self-concept and patterns of family interaction.