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.