Positive family relationships can protect children from poor asthma outcomes

Positive family relationships could help youth maintain good asthma management behaviors despite difficult neighborhood conditions, according to a new study from Northwestern University.

For asthmatic children, it has long been known that environmental conditions in the neighborhood – the role of allergens and pollutants – play an important role, but less is known about how social conditions in the neighborhood might affect the environment. children's asthma.

In this study, researchers sought to determine whether there were social factors that could protect children from the negative effects of difficult neighborhood conditions, by focusing on a factor they thought was important in the lives of children. children – if they had a positive and supportive family. relationships.

"We found significant interactions between neighborhood conditions and the quality of family relationships, predicting the clinical outcomes of asthma," said Edith Chen, professor of psychology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, a member of the faculty of the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research and lead author of the study. "When children live in highly threatened and disordered neighborhoods, the better their family relationships, the less they experience symptoms and activity limitations, and the better their lung function."

On the other hand, he added, when children lived in neighborhoods threatened with disorder and disorder, their symptoms, activity limitations, and lung function were generally good and the nature of their family relationships was important. little.

Using Google Street View, researchers were able to walk virtually through each of the researcher's Chicago neighborhoods and set indicators of danger or disorder in the neighborhood, including traces of graffiti and cars. , from bars or grilles to windows and doors. , and abandoned or boarded houses. This gave them a more objective indicator of the level of danger and disorder in the neighborhood that a participant is likely to experience daily by the time he walks from his home.

They then interviewed the children about their family relationships and coded existing support, trust and conflict and measured various asthma outcomes (clinical, behavioral and biological) in these children.

Chen said research was important for the field of pediatrics because families often had no choice but to leave difficult neighborhoods.

"If pediatricians can suggest to families how supportive relationships can help manage their child's asthma, while recognizing the realities of the persistent difficulties faced by many of these families in the neighborhood, this could help families" Chen said.

It is possible that when children have good relationships with their family, family members can help them prioritize asthma management, for example, by protecting them from stressors in the home. neighborhood to minimize disruption of asthma routines. But this is speculative at this point, and future research could test this idea by implementing family or parenting interventions among young asthmatics living in very dangerous neighborhoods and examining their effects on asthma outcomes at home. l & # 39; child. "

Professor Edith Chen