Learned illness behavior and adjustment to arthritis.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effects of parents' avoidant illness behaviors on their adult children's adjustment to arthritis.

METHODS

Men and women attending a rheumatology clinic completed arthritis health status questionnaires and described how their parents generally responded to their own minor illnesses. Some participants rated their parents as never avoiding routine activities when confronting minor illness and were assigned to the non-avoidant group. Participants in the avoidant group reported that their parents avoided routine activities in response to minor illness. Those in the mixed group rated one parent as avoidant and the other parent as non-avoidant.

RESULTS

Relative to the non-avoidant group, participants in the avoidant group reported more behavioral restrictions, helplessness, and depression. All groups were similar with respect to disease severity.

CONCLUSION

Even after the passage of several decades, early observations of parents' illness behaviors appear to affect adjustment to arthritis.