EDUCATIONAL-ATTITUDES, FAMILYS ATMOSPHERE AND ATOPIC ECZEMA IN CHILDREN - A PILOT-STUDY

To test hypotheses about pathogene relations in mother-child-dyads with children suffering from eczema, 25 mothers of children with acute eczema, 25 mothers of children with chronic eczema, and 31 mothers of healthy children (average age: 2.4, 2.8, and 1.9 years) were asked to answer a questionnaire concerning educational attitudes (aversive, authoritarian, tenderhearted, overprotective) and family's atmosphere (cooperative, controlled, achievement orientated, dependent). Analysees of variance showed only one significant effect. The results suggest that mothers of children in chronic state are more aversive than mothers of healthy children or mothers of children in acute state. Nevertheless, the mothers' aversion has to be interpreted as a consequence, not at all as an original cause of the disease. Furthermore the mothers' aversion seems to indicate a psychic exhaustion more than an aggressive education.