MOTHERS WITH MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS AND THEIR CHILDREN - EFFECTS OF FATIGUE AND EXACERBATIONS ON MATERNAL SUPPORT

Background: Mothers with multiple sclerosis (MS) often face fatigue an d episodic exacerbations during their child-rearing years. These probl ems affect their support of their children, including physical affecti on. Children, depending on their age and gender, may or may not unders tand the changes. Objectives: To increase knowledge about mothers with MS concerning the relationship of fatigue and functional status to th e perception of physical affection with their children, their percepti ons of physical affection with their children in relation to exacerbat ion of their symptoms and the age and gender of their children, and th e children's perceptions of their mothers' physical affection in relat ion to the children's age and gender and exacerbations in their mother s' symptoms. Method: Thirty-five mothers with relapsing-remitting MS a nd a child of each mother were studied, using interviews and questionn aires. Results: Functional status and fatigue were not significant pre dictors of physical affection during an exacerbation. When the mothers ' symptoms were stable, perceptions of mothers and children with respe ct to maternal physical affection were similar. Significant changes we re reported in both the mothers' perceptions of their physical affecti on and the children's perceptions of their mothers' physical affection during exacerbations. There was a significant difference between the perceptions of the mothers and children regarding the magnitude of tha t change. Mothers significantly underestimated changes in their physic al affection. Conclusions: Physical affection was selected as an impor tant aspect of family functioning that could be affected by characteri stics of illness, including exacerbations, fatigue, and functional sta tus. However, fatigue and functional status did not explain the percep tion of physical affection during an exacerbation.