Family Functioning of Families with Epileptic Children

Cho, Sung Min; Kim, Bo Young

Abstract

PURPOSE: Epilepsy, a typical chronic disease, may cause a high level of psychosocial difficulties for all family members, including stigmatization, stress, marital problems, poor self esteem and restriction of social activities. The present study focuses on how children with epilepsy affect their families' functioning.
METHODS
The subjects were 30 parents of epileptic children. The Feetham Family Function Survey(FFFS) was used to obtain data concerning the parents' perceived family functioning. Data were analyzed with SPSS 8.0 program using Pearson correlation coefficient, Oneway ANOVA, and multiple range test(Scheffe test).
RESULTS
The results of analysis showed slightly low score of the amount of the activity, high importance score and discrepant score, which mean a low satisfaction level. There was no significant correlation between most demographic variables of the family and the family functioning. Oneway ANOVA showed the differences of the discrepant score according to the number of the antiepileptic drugs, the frequency of the seizure, the combined disabilities, and the ways in which families with epileptic children raised money for hospital expenses.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study indicate that the expected level and the important score might be higher than the achieved level of the family functioning, which indicates the low satisfaction in the families with epileptic children. The results also suggest that the discrepant score in the families with epileptic children may be influenced by some treatment-related characteristics of the epileptic children such as the frequency of the seizure, the number of the antiepileptic drugs, the combined disabilities and the ways in which families with epileptic children raised money for hospital expenses.