Maternal Child-Rearing Behavior in Three Groups: Cystic Fibrosis, Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus, and Healthy Children

Compared child-rearing behaviors among mothers of children (ages4–14) with cystic fibrosis (CF) (N = 26), insulin-dependentdiabetes mellitus (IDDM) (N = 26), and mothers of physicallyhealthy children (N = 26), on six domains, including involvement,limit setting, responsiveness, reasoning and guidance, freeexpression, and intimacy using the Iowa Parent Behavior Inventory.Maternal Reports of their child-rearing behavior were comparableacross the three groups with one exception: Mothers of childrenwith chronic illnesses (CF and IDDM) were significantly lesslikely to set limits than mothers of healthy children. The presentfindings are consistent with those of other studies that haveidentified few differences in child-rearing practices betweenmothers of children with chronic illnesses and mothers of healthychildren. Future research should identify situation-specificparenting tasks unique to childhood chronic illness.