RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED PARENTAL ACCEPTANCE, PARENTAL REJECTION AND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRONICALLY ILL SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN AS COMPARED TO WELL SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 141
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if there were differences in the perception of parental acceptance, parental rejection and personality characteristics of the chronically ill school-age children as compared to well school-age children.

A sample of 92 school-age children (9-12) who met the criteria established for selection was used. Forty-six chronically ill school-age children (having either diabetes or seizure disorders) were matched to 46 well school-age children in terms of age, sex, socioeconomic status, and family structure. The Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire- PARQ, and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire- PAQ, two self-report instruments, were used (Rohner, Saavedra, & Granum, 1978). The Parental Acceptance Rejection Interview Schedule- PARIS (Rohner, 1980), was used to confirm self-report on both the PARQ and the PAQ. A demographic data sheet was used to obtain demographic information.

All subjects were administered the PARQ and the PAQ. A subsample of 30 (15 ill and 15 well) children was also administered the PARIS. Parents responded to the demographic data sheet. Seven hypotheses were formulated for statistical analysis. The Paired t - test and the Pearson Product-Moment correlations were utilized to test the hypotheses at the .05 level of significance.

Major Findings. Chronically ill children did not perceive their parents as being more rejecting than well children based on the Rejection Scales. There were no significant differences in self-esteem, dependency, and aggression between ill children with perceived parental rejection and well children with perceived parental rejection, but not in self-adequacy. Ill children with perceived parental acceptance did not show less dependency than ill children with perceived parental rejection. Ill children with perceived parental acceptance reported lower aggression than ill children with perceived parental rejection. There were no significant differences between perceived parental rejection and personality characteristics in both groups. There were positive relationships between perceived rejection and aggression, dependency, self-esteem, and self-adequacy reported by both groups.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-05, Section: B, page: 1512.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1985.

School code: 0043.