Children’s physical and mental health conditions can affect the family as a whole as well, due to the time and expense that can be required to assure that the child receives the care that he or she needs. Parents of children with asthma or socio-emotional difficulties were asked about the degree of “burden” their child’s condition puts on the family: a great deal, a medium amount, a little, or not at all. Overall, the families of 16.3 percent of children with asthma are affected a great deal or a medium amount by the child’s condition.

The families of 28 percent of children who experience socio-emotional difficulties report that they are moderately or greatly affected by these difficulties.

While families’ reports of the impact of asthma declines as children grow older, the reverse is the case for emotional or behavioral difficulties.

Among children with asthma, 18.9 percent of those aged 0-5 years, 17.5 percent of those in the 6- to 11-year-old age group, and 13.5 percent of adolescents aged 12-17 have families who are greatly or moderately affected. In contrast, of children with socio-emotional problems, the families of 22.1 percent of children aged 0-5, 24.6 percent of those aged 6-11, and 32.8 percent of adolescents reported a moderate or great deal of impact.

Likewise, while the impact of children’s asthma on families appears to be related to family income, the impact of socio-emotional difficulties is not. Of children with asthma, the families of 22.0 percent of those with family incomes below poverty reported that the condition affected them moderately or a great deal, compared to 18.8 percent of children with family incomes between 100 and 199 percent of poverty, 12.6 percent of children with family incomes between 200 and 399 percent of FPL, and 12.4 percent of children in higher-income families. Of children with socio-emotional difficulties, the families of approximately 27 to 29 percent of children reported this level of impact regardless of income.