Stress in mothers of young children with eczema

Abstract

Objective: To assess parental stress levels of mothers of children less than 6 years old with eczema and compare these levels with those reported for other chronic childhood illnesses. Methods: Mothers were recruited from hospital-based out-patient clinics (55%) or while their child was an inpatient (45%) for management of eczema. Maternal stress was measured utilising the Parenting Stress IndexLong Form (PSI) in 33 mothers. The severity of the eczema at the time of interview was documented by the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) score and the Investigators' Global Assessment (IGA) score. Results: The children with eczema had a mean age of 2.8 years. Mothers of children aged 5 years or less with eczema exhibited significantly higher total stress scores (mean PSI 259.6, 95% CI 244.9 to 274.3) as compared to mothers of normal children (PSI 222.8, 95% CI 221.4 to 224.2) and children with other chronic disorders such as insulin-dependent diabetes (PSI 218.1, 95% CI 204.7 to 231.6) and profound deafness (PSI 221.7, 95% CI 206.4 to 237.0). Stress scores in the parental domain (138.2, 95% CI 128.9 to 147.6) did not differ significantly from the scores of parents of children with severe disabilities such as those requiring home enteral feeding (135.2, 95% CI 129.3 to 141.1) and those with Rett syndrome (132.8, 95% CI 125.0 to 140.6). Conclusions: Moderate to severe childhood eczema should be regarded as a significant illness in which maternal stress is equivalent to that associated with the care of children with severe developmental and physical problems.

Children and adolescents living with atopic eczema: an interpretive phenomenological study with Chinese mothers

“…The findings are similar to those of studies done in the West. Faught et al (2007) also found that mothers of children with AE exhibited significantly higher levels of stress compared to mothers of normal children, and they had to deal with the extra mothering due to the skin regimen treatment. Ohya et al (2001) also reported that mothers of young children living with AE experienced increased emotional stress compared to those with other chronic illnesses such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), since the impacts of the stress were directly related to the coping demands of the severity level of this chronic skin illness.…”

“…Faught et al (2007) reported that mothers with young children (aged 5 or under) with AE exhibited significantly higher total stress scores as compared to mothers of normal children with other chronic disorders. Caring for a child with AE can be a burden.…”

Higher cortisol is associated with poorer executive functioning in preschool children: The role of parenting stress, parent coping and quality of daycare

“…The PSI is the most widely used measure of parenting stress in parents of young children with a variety of health, developmental and behavioral problems (e.g., Brummelte et al, 2011; Collett, Cloonan, Speltz, Anderka, & Werler, 2012; Faught, Bierl, Barton, & Kemp, 2007; Fite, Stoppelbein, & Greening, 2008; Glenn, Cunningham, Poole, Reeves, & Weindling, 2009; Tu et al, 2007; Webster, Majnemer, Platt, & Shevell, 2008). The PSI long form contains 120 items comprising three domains: Child Domain, Parent Domain, and Life Stress Domain.…”

The Ages & Stages Questionnaire: Social–Emotional: A validation study of a mother‐report questionnaire on a clinical mother–infant sample

“…Since parental stress is known to inßuence child development (Essex et al, 2006;Faught, Bierl, Barton, & Kemp, 2007;Mäntymaa, Puura, Luoma, Salmelin, & Tamminen, 2006;Pelchat, Bisson, Bois, & Saucier, 2003), the Swedish Parental Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ;Östberg, Hagekull, & Wettergren, 1997) was used to assess levels of maternal stress. The SPSQ is a Swedish version of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990).…”