Does chronic illness increase childrens risk for impaired peer relationships?
This study investigated the social vulnerability of children with asthma in a large, longitudinal, national sample. Data from the 1994 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample (NLSY-C) were analyzed to identify differences in the quality of peer relationships between children with asthma and a comparison group of healthy peers. The 1994 NLSY-C sample consists of 6,974 children younger than 15 years old who were available for interview and assessment in 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, or 1994. In the current study, 262 children with asthma and a matched comparison group of healthy peers between the ages of 4 years and 14 years in 1994 were selected from the 1994 NLSY-C. The study explored ways in which specific child (gender), family (financial status and emotional support), and illness (degree of medical limitation) characteristics were related to social vulnerability, and described those relationships over a four-year time period between 1990 and 1994. In addition, it examined the d
