Family functioning according to clusters of family management styles in Korean families of children with chronic atopic disease: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundChronic allergic diseases in children are often linked with behavioral problems, poor daily living, negative perceptions of health, and low life satisfaction. ObjectivesThis study aimed to propose clusters of family management styles in the Korean families of children with chronic atopic disease, including allergic asthma, atopic dermatitis, and/or allergic rhinitis and examine the level of family functioning according to these clusters. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingsA university-level hospital in metropolitan Seoul, South Korea. ParticipantsParents of children with chronic atopic disease. MethodsThis study included 146 participants. The Korean version of the Family Management Measure and the Korean Family Functioning Scale were used to assess family management styles and family functioning, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 using descriptive statistics, agglomerative hierarchical clustering with Ward's method prior to k-means clustering, k-means clustering analysis, analysis of variance, and chi-squared test. ResultsFour clusters of family management styles were identified as follows: stable-resilient, less committed, parents’ mission, and challenging. Among all participants, 19.9%, 30%, 20.6%, and 29.5% belonged to each of these clusters, respectively. The level of family functioning significantly differed between the four clusters, with the stable-resilient cluster having the highest mean level and the challenging cluster having the lowest mean level. Parents’ perceived the complexity of self-managing their child's condition as one of the factors differentiating the level of family functioning of each cluster. ConclusionsThis study identified four clusters of family management styles and showed that each cluster was associated with a different level of family functioning. The unique characteristics of the four clusters may be helpful in providing individualized care and promoting positive family functioning in families with children having chronic atopic disease.