Relationship of parental psychological distress to consequences of chronic health conditions in children.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether parents' self-reported psychological distress was related to consequences of chronic health conditions in their children as reflected by three domains: functional limitations, reliance on compensatory mechanisms, and service use above routine care.


METHODS
We used telephone survey data on children's health and parents' psychiatric symptoms from an inner-city community sample (n = 380) and a population-based national sample (n =398).


RESULTS
In the national sample, parents of children with functional limitations were more distressed than parents whose children experienced other types of condition consequences or none. In the inner-city sample, presence of a health condition was associated with greater parental distress, but there were no significant effects by consequence type.


CONCLUSIONS
Research needs to determine if parents of children with functional limitations represent a high-risk group and to identify the factors associated with their elevated distress.
Silver
E J
EJ
Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.
Westbrook
L E
LE
Stein
R E
RE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D014504:Urban Health