The development of an instrument to measure the effects of a parent's chronic illness on parenting tasks.

An instrument was developed to assess the impact of chronic illness on the performance of parenting tasks (e.g., lifting, feeding, transporting, etc.). Little research on the affect of illness in general on the performance of parenting tasks is in the literature. Mothers with narcolepsy (n = 20) were used as the sample for this pilot study along with a comparison of mothers without a chronic illness (n = 20). Mothers were matched by the age and sex of the oldest child. The age groups of childhood and adolescence from the Parenting Tasks Index (PTI) were used in this study. Good reliability and validity were found in the use of this instrument. Over 50% of the mothers with narcolepsy indicated many parenting tasks (e.g., assigning the child chores, disciplining, and performing household chores) that posed moderate to severe difficulty for them. Pediatric nurses will find this instrument useful in planning individualized interventions related to identified difficult parenting tasks and in furthering research in this area.