This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Salewski, C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Salewski, C. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Illness Representations in Families with a Chronically Ill Adolescent: Differences between Family Members and Impact on Patients’ Outcome Variables

University of Greifswald, Germanysalewski{at}mail.unigreifswald.de

The impact of parents’ illness representations on well-being and illness-related strain of adolescents suffering from a chronic skin disease was examined. Because family characteristics have proved to be important for coping, adolescents’ perceived family cohesion was also assessed. Five categories of illness representations (causes, control, timeline, curability, and effective treatments) were assessed from 30 adolescents and their parents. Comparisons revealed differences between family members’ illness representations. Perceived family cohesion was a good predictor of adolescents’ wellbeing and strain, whereas parents’ illness representations had only little impact. In families with high similarity between the parents’ illness representations, the adolescents reported more well-being. Results are discussed with regard to developmental characteristics of adolescence, nature of outcome variables and methodological problems.

Key Words: adolescents • family • illnessrelated strain • illness representations • well-being

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 5, 587-598 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/13591053030085009


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. Quiles Marcos, J. Weinman, M. C. Terol Cantero, and M. Belendez Vazquez The Dissimilarity between Patients' and Relatives' Perception of Eating Disorders and its Relation to Patient Adjustment J Health Psychol, March 1, 2009; 14(2): 306 - 312. [Abstract] [PDF]