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The Double ABCX Model of Family Adjustment and Adaptation, a model that predicts adaptation to chronic stressors on the family, was extended by dividing it into attitudes, coping, and adaptation of parents and child separately, and by including variables relevant to child adaptation to epilepsy or asthma. The extended model was tested on 246 children (126 with epilepsy and 120 with asthma, ages 8-12), using data gathered in interviews and questionnaires involving the children, their mothers, and their school teachers. Structural equation modeling was carried out to test the model's relationships. Coping and adaptation measures were treated as endogenous variables and family adaptive resources, demographics, family demands, attitudes, health condition, and school status measures were treated as exogenous variables. Moderate support was found for the variables proposed in the extended Double ABCX Model child adaptation to epilepsy or asthma. Child coping patterns were the strongest predictors of child adaptation at home and at school, and child's attitude was the strongest predictor of child self-concept. However, parental coping, demographic, and health condition variables accounted for essentially no variance in child adaptation. The model to predict child adaptation to epilepsy was more complex than the model for asthma in that more exogenous variables were retained. (14 references.) (JDD)

This study aimed to describe demographic, seizure, and family characteristics associated with good and poor adaptation to childhood epilepsy and contrast them with demographic, asthma, and family characteristics associated with good and poor adaptation to childhood asthma. Children with asthma were selected as a comparison sample because epilepsy and asthma are both chronic medical conditions that are characterized by unpredictable episodes that generally require regular intake of medication and regular visits to a physician. Data were gathered from the children (ages 8-12), their mothers, and their school teachers. The theoretical framework for the selection of family characteristics was the Double ABCX Model of Family Adaptation and Adjustment in which three factors affecting coping are family demands or stressors on the family, family adaptive resources, and family definition or attitudes toward the condition and its impact. Results showed that family strength variables were strong predictors of child adaptation to both epilepsy and asthma. The mother's attitude was the strongest predictor of child adaptation for asthma but was not a strong predictor for epilepsy. (14 references.) (JDD)

To investigate vulnerability to psychological and emotional stress among chronically ill children, a battery of personality tests was selectively administered to 144 children (5- to 19-years-old) afflicted with one of the following conditions: diabetes, asthma, cystic fibrosis, or hearing impairment. Analyses centered on comparisons of norms developed for each scale with overall sample scores and scores broken down by age, sex, and type of illness. While some differences from normal children were noted (such as the hearing impaired Ss deviated from established norms in terms of lowered self-concept and that adolescents tended toward introversion), results consistently demonstrated Ss' functional strengths and coping abilities rather than their deviance from the norm. (LH)