title: Adolescent and postadolescent asthmatics' perception of their mothers as overcontrolling in childhood.
abstract: One of us (HSR) reported that adolescent and postadolescent patients with well-controlled bronchial asthma coming to a university health services clinic were more likely to arrive late for an appointment, or not to show up for it at all, than non-allergic healthy patients, patients with perennial rhinitis, patients with seasonal rhinitis, or patients being investigated for cardiac disease. He wondered whether such behavior might be a reaction against an overcontrolling mother. To determine whether patients with bronchial asthma perceived their mothers as having overcontrolled them in their childhood, we asked adolescent and postadolescent patients coming to a university health services clinic to answer a questionnaire anonymously. Three disease groups were studied: 1) bronchial asthma, 2) perennial rhinitis, 3) seasonal rhinitis; and a group of non-allergic healthy controls. Asthmatics significantly more often than the other groups reported that when they were children their mothers (but not their fathers) had overcontrolled them (p less than .001).
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology*; D002668:Child Rearing; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D004485:Eczema / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010551:Personality; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000523:psychology