Children with asthma: initial development of the child resilience model.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a clinically relevant conceptual model of resilience in children based on theoretical relationships between family environment, specific child characteristics, and selected health outcomes.

Methods: A correlational study method was used to study a nonprobability, volunteer sample of 235 children, diagnosed with asthma on daily medication.

Findings: Findings revealed that the paths in the inner core of a resilience model were statistically significant. Fifteen percent of the variance in the illness indices outcome for children with asthma was explained by family environment, specific child characteristics, appraisal and coping, and child perceived quality of life. A child's sense of coherence and self-esteem, as mediated by a child's appraisal of asthma, accounted for 37% of the variance explained in the perceived quality of life.

Conclusions: Nurses and physicians, committed to working in partnerships with parents, can help foster specific child characteristics that impact the effects of asthma.