Abstract
Low-income mothers of children with uncontrolled asthma are an underserved population at risk for psychological distress. We examined the impact of violence exposure and child asthma morbidity on depressive symptoms in mothers of youths with uncontrolled asthma. Asthma symptoms and health care utilization, socio-demographics, and standardized measures of depressive symptoms and violence exposure were ascertained by self-report. Latent Growth Curve Modeling tested the associations of violence and asthma morbidity with depressive symptoms. Participating mothers (N=276) reported high baseline violence exposure (59.5%) and depressive symptoms (34.4%); nearly a quarter had clinically significant depressive symptoms at 12 months. Violence exposure was consistently associated with maternal depressive symptoms. Individual indicators of asthma morbidity were non-significant, but the cumulative effect of asthma morbidity was predictive of higher depressive symptoms. Findings suggest holistic risk assessment and interventions may be needed to ameliorate the chronic distress observed in mothers of youths with uncontrolled asthma.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 47-66 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Journal of health care for the poor and underserved |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2022 |
Keywords
- Asthma
- Exposure to violence
- Mothers
- Psychological distress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health