Abstract
This study considers the behavioral implications of congenital heart disease for the pediatric patient, his siblings, and his parents. The effects of a disease on the child, on his siblings, and on his parents and the interplay among these individuals are explored. The impact of the physician's diagnosis is illustrated by the induced significant changes in family attitudes, which are not necessarily related to disease severity or child incapacity. Poorer adjustment and anxiety in the cardiac child related more highly to maternal anxiety and pampering than to his degree of incapacity. Maternal protectiveness and pampering were significantly greater in the cardiac than in the normal group and were highest in the cyanotic group. The best predictor of maternal protectiveness was maternal anxiety, and it was found that the addition of other variables such as incapacity and child dependence failed to improve prediction substantially. Maternal anxiety seemed related to the presence rather than to the severity of the heart condition.
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