Child Illness, the Parenting Alliance, and Parenting Stress

Abstract

Assessed relationship between children's minor illnesses during the first 3 years of life and parenting stress in the 4th year. Also examined whether a good parenting alliance would compensate for or moderate this relationship. Parents of 56 3- to 4-year-olds completed parenting alliance and stress questionnaires. Child morbidity, assessed from medical records, was directly related to mothers' but not fathers' feelings of stress. The parenting alliance was more strongly related to parenting stress for fathers than for mothers. However, child morbidity and parenting alliance interacted in predicting child-related paternal stresses. While fathers in a poor alliance reported more stress, stress was unrelated to their children's illnesses; for fathers in a moderate to strong alliance, illness and stress were positively correlated. Even minor child illnesses appear to be a source of stress for parents.