An increased frequency of asthma in children has been lately observed. The course of asthma depends not only on treatment, but also on the actions taken by the parents of a sick child. Design: A non-experimental cross-sectional design. Methods: In this study the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were administered to 60 parents of children with asthma. Two groups of parents were compared. The first group consisted of parents of children who had been diagnosed with asthma less than three months before the beginning of the study. The second group consisted of parents of children who had been diagnosed at least one year previously. Results: It was observed that, in the group of parents aged 20-30 years, the level of life satisfaction was significantly higher for parents of children who had suffered from asthma for at least one year than for the parents of children recently diagnosed with asthma. There were no statistically significant differences in the other age groups. There was a positive correlation between the level of satisfaction with life and emotional functioning in the parents of children diagnosed recently. Conclusions: The results of the present study point to a general ability of parents to adapt to the situation of having an ill child. This may be related to the relative ease of access to information that enables parents to understand more about the condition
