Children at Risk of Allergic Development: The Parents’ Dyadic Relationship

Abstract

The paper describes a study of parents’ dyadic interaction in high-/low-risk families (n = 161) with children at risk of asthmatic/allergic development. The high-risk couples tend to consist of a mother who denies negative affects and a dissatisfied father. The high-risk mothers tend to overrate the agreement especially on affective expression. There were no significant differences in dyadic interaction in low-risk couples. The results are discussed according to family communication patterns, repressed conflicts and possible immunological consequences of chronic emotional stress, learned coping and emotional expression styles.

Personality Structure of Asthmatic and Normal Children Assessed hy the Rorschach Technique

“…Ac cording to Faleide et al [ 1986Faleide et al [ , 1987 parents of children at risk of developing asthmatic/allergic symptoms can be described as a pair consisting of an idyllizing mother and a dissatisfied father. Parents from high-risk and low-risk families as regards asthma/allergy development in their children have sig nificantly different dyadic interaction scores [Spanier, 1976].…”