Family obligations and asthma in youth: The moderating role of socioeconomic status

• Main Authors: Chen, E. (Author), Chiang, J.J (Author), Hayen, R. (Author), Lam, P.H (Author), Levine, C.S (Author), Shalowitz, M.U (Author), Sinard, R.N (Author), Story, R.E (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association Inc. 2018
• Subjects: adolescent; Adolescent; age; Article; asthma; Asthma; Asthma Control Test; birth order; caregiver; Caregivers; child; Child; child parent relation; disease severity; drug use; exhalation; Exhalation; family; Family; family attitude; family income; family obligation; family obligations; family relation; Family Relations; family size; female; Female; fractional exhaled nitric oxide; health; household; human; Humans; income; Income; inflammation; Inflammation; male; Male; mental health; Mental Health; Parents; school child; social class; Social Class; social responsibility; Social Responsibility; social status; socioeconomic status; youth
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Objective: Fulfilling family obligations-providing instrumental help to and spending time with family-is a common aspect of family relationships. However, whether fulfilling these obligations links with physical health remains unclear. In this study, we investigated whether fulfilling family obligations was associated with asthma outcomes among youth, and whether these associations differed depending on family socioeconomic status (SES). Method: Participants were 172 youth, 8 to 17 years of age (Mage = 12.1; 54% boys) who had been physician-diagnosed with asthma and reported on family-obligation frequency; completed the Asthma Control Test (ACT; Nathan et al., 2004), a clinical measure of asthma control; and completed a measure of airway inflammation (i.e., fractional exhaled nitric oxide). Parents also completed the ACT in reference to their asthmatic children and reported on family income. Results: Fulfilling family obligations was not associated with asthma outcomes (βs < .14, ps > .075). However, SES (family income) interacted with family obligations, such that fulfilling family obligations was associated with greater airway inflammation (interaction term β =-.17, p = .023) and poorer parent-reported asthma control (interaction term β = .15, p = .039), only among youth from lower SES backgrounds. Exploratory analyses suggest that these interactions were robust against covariates and were largely consistent across age and the two dimensions of family-obligation behaviors. Conclusion: Findings from this study suggest that among youth from lower SES backgrounds, engaging in more frequent familyobligation behaviors may have negative repercussions in terms of their asthma. © 2018 American Psychological Association.