Parental styles and quality of life in the families with adolescents suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract

Background

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in adolescents are chronic medical conditions with a substantial influence on the well-being of the family members.

Methods

Total of 27 adolescents suffered from IBD, and 39 healthy adolescents completed questionnaires ADOR (parenting styles assessed by teenagers), KidScreen-10 (quality of life), SAD (Scale of Anxiety in Children), and CDI (Children's Depression Inventory). Their parents completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Pediatrics Quality of Life Family Impact Module (PedsQL).

Results

The parental styles of mothers and fathers of IBD adolescents and the parents of healthy controls were without statistically significant differences except for the fathers’ positive parental style, which was significantly higher in the fathers of controls. There were no statistically significant differences between IBD children and the healthy controls in the quality of life assessed. However, the parents’ quality of life of ill children was statistically significantly lower than of the parents of the controls. The mothers of IBD adolescents were significantly more anxious and the fathers more depressed than the parents of the healthy controls, but there was no difference in the levels of anxiety or depression between IBD adolescents and the controls. Positive parental style of parents of IBD children positively correlated with the quality of life of adolescents. Positive parental style of the fathers correlated negatively with the state and trait children's anxiety and negatively correlated with severity of childhood depression.

Conclusions

The parents of the adolescents with IBD represent important group for psychosocial support.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.