A partial test of the psychosomatic family model: Marital interaction patterns in asthma and nonasthma families

The psychosomatic family model (PFM) implicates marital quality in childhood asthma chronicity and exacerbation. The PFM posits that the child's symptomatology varies in relation to parent interaction patterns characterized by conflict avoidance and brief intradyadic engagement. This investigation of 40 families sought to determine if marital dyads show differential conditional likelihoods for these behavioral characterizations as a function of having an asthmatic or nonasth-matic child. Using observational data collected in the home, a series of logit models examined the likelihood of extended dyadic engagement, disagreement, and child solicitation. As predicted, nonasthma couples were more likely to disagree and had longer intradyadic engagements, whereas asthma family couples were more solicitous. Contrary to expectation, marital quality was not a significant predictor of child solicitation in the asthma family couples.