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Children With Chronic Physical Disorders: Maternal Reports Of Their Psychological Adjustment, Heather Banis, Jan Wallander, James Varni, Lina Babani, Karen Wilcox

Heather Banis

Advances in biomedical science have resulted in dramatic improvements in the medical care of chronically ill and handicapped children. Past measurement problems have resulted in a lack of clarity regarding the psychological adjustment of these children. The mothers of 270 chronically ill and handicapped children were administered the Child Behavior Checklist in an attempt to identify patterns of behavioral functioning across six pediatric chronic disorders: juvenile diabetes, spina bifida, hemophilia, chronic obesity, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and cerebral palsy. In general, it was found that children in all chronic disorder groups were perceived by their mothers as evidencing on the average …