Are parents of asthmatic children different from other parents? Some follow-up results from the Norwegian PRAD Project.

Follow-up results from the Norwegian PRAD study (Psychosocial Risk for Allergic Development) show that parents of children who later developed symptoms of asthma were different from a control group of parents with normal, nonsymptomatic children several years preceding the disorder. There were significant within-pair differences in self-reported marital adjustment (DAS-Dyadic Adjustment Scale) for the control group but not for the asthma group. There were no significant between-pair DAS scores for the two groups of parents. The two groups of parents also differed in perceiving how the child had influenced their lives, in description of the childbirth and partially in childcare style. The assumed relationship between parental characteristics and asthma in children is being discussed, and the paper concludes that parents of asthmatic children should be regarded as a risk factor and clinical and therapeutic routines should be developed accordingly.