The present study examined differences in children's behavior problems and peer
interaction, and parental factors including self-esteem, depression and childrearing
stress between atopic dermatitis(AD) and normal(non-AD) children in each
gender, and analyzed the effects of the parental factors on the two variables of
AD children. 165 AD and 1176 non-AD children of age 5 were selected from
the 6th year data of the Panel Study on Korean Children. The results from t-test
and multiple regression are as follows. First, only AD boys showed a higher level
of behavior problems than non-AD boys, but peer interaction showed no
difference between AD and non-AD groups. Compared with non-AD children’s
parents, mothers of AD children showed a higher stress level and mothers of AD
boys had a higher depression level. But there were no differences in maternal
self-esteem and paternal factors between the groups. Second, AD boys’ behavior
problems were related to maternal factors and paternal stress, and some
characteristics of AD girls’ behavior problems were related with some parental
variables. But peer interaction of AD children had no relation with parental
factors. Third, behavior problems were influenced by maternal stress in AD boys
and influenced by maternal depression and parental self-esteem in AD girls.