Families of chronically ill children: The relationship between mothers' reports of normalization and social support.

Abstract

This study tested the hypotheses that mothers of chronically ill children who reported high use of normalization by their families had higher levels of perceived social support. Additionally, the internal reliability of the Normalization Scale (Murphy, 1992) was determined. A non-probability purposive sample of thirty-three mothers of chronically ill school-aged children was recruited from a medical day unit of a regional pediatric tertiary health setting. Employing the Family Management Style Model (Knafl & Deatrick, 1990) as a conceptual framework, the study used a descriptive correlational design. Data were collected from mothers using the Normalization Scale (Murphy, 1994), the Personal Resource Questionnaire, (Weinert, 1987) and a demographic questionnaire. Mothers' reported use of normalization by their families was found to be associated with perceived social support and their satisfaction with help received from their social support network. The relationship between mothers' reported use of normalization and the size of the social support network was not significant. The study demonstrated that family and friends are the sources of support that mothers most frequently cite as helpful. This investigation also confirmed the importance of health care professionals in the family's process of normalizing their child's illness and their family life. Support groups were not perceived as helpful by these mothers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)