Chronic Illness, Symptoms and Efficacy in Children as Related to Some Psychological Characteristics of Mothers

TLDR: Health attitudes and physical as well as psychological symptoms reported by mothers of chronically ill children were negatively and significantly correlated, and mothers'symptom reporting was positively correlated with mothers' neuroticism.

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between attitude towards health and neuroti cism and reporting of physical and psychological systems in mothers of chroni cally ill and healthy children. The relationship between reporting of symptoms by mothers, and complaints reported by the two groups of chronically ill and healthy children was also studied. Further, influence of the illness, and physical and psy chological complaints on academic and social behaviour, and efficacy of children were investigated. A total of 100 mothers and children were included in the study. Of these, 25 were chronically ill children and their mothers, and 25 were healthy children and their mothers. Results reveal that health attitudes and physical as well as psychological symptoms reported by mothers of chronically ill children were negatively and significantly correlated. In the case of chronically ill children, mothers'symptom reporting waspositively correlated with mothers' neuroticism, on the one hand, and the number of physical...