Fostering Effective Asthma Self-Management Transfer in High-Risk Children: Gaps and Opportunities for Family Engagement

Introduction: The process of self-management knowledge, behavior, and skill development in children with asthma from families with low income is understudied. Method: Fifteen mothers of children with uncontrolled asthma participated in semistructured interviews exploring the transfer of asthma self-management responsibilities from parent to child. Team members performed thematic analysis of written transcripts. Results: All participants were all the biological mothers and were impoverished, with most (73%) reporting an annual family income of less than $30,000. Their children ranged from 5 to 15 years old, were African American (100%), and had uncontrolled asthma based on national guidelines. Themes showed that child asthma self-management is difficult to achieve, that the transfer of asthma responsibility from mother to child is variable, and that mothers overestimate their child's developmental capacities for independent asthma self-management and have poor understanding of what well-controlled asthma means. Discussion: Ongoing assessment and tailored guidance from health care providers are critical to support the pivotal role of mothers in their child's self-management development process.