Maternal Perceptions of the Social Development and Behavior of Asthmatic Children

To assess the effects of asthma on the social development and behavior of asthmatic children, 60 mothers of 6- to 13-year-old children (30 mothers of asthmatics, 30 mothers of non-asthmatics) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL: Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1986) and were administered the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (Vineland: Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984). It was hypothesized that asthmatic children would lag behind non-asthmatic peers in social development, defined as the development of age-appropriate behaviors (i.e., communication, daily living skills, and socialization). In addition, it was hypothesized that asthmatic children would exhibit more internalizing behaviors than non-asthmatic children. There were no significant differences between the asthmatic children and their nonasthmatic peers. These results contradict previous research findings which found that children with chronic illness invariably were more depressed than their healthy peers (e.g., Battle, 1975); that they exhibited more behavioral and cognitive difficulties as compared to healthy peers (e.g., Wallander & Varni, 1989); and that they lagged behind their healthy peers in social development (e.g., Seiner & Staudenmayer, 1979).