Background: Atopic dermatitis is a frequent, chronic, pruritic, inflammatory skin disease that usually begins in early childhood. It is a somato-psychic disease which is influenced by the family environment and related emotional instability (neuroticism), however, relevant data are sparse.
Objectives: To determine the impact of personality properties of affected children and parental styles of care on the severity of atopic dermatitis.
Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 80 patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis, treated at the Center for Dermato-venereology of the Pediatric Clinic, Clinical Center "Kragujevac", Central Serbia. The study included children aged 8 to 13 years, of both sexes, with a diagnosis of atopic dermatitis based on the SCORAD index. The EMBU scale was used to assess parental behaviour, and HANES1 and HANES2 scales were used to assess basic dimensions of personality (neuroticism and stability). The Student-t, Chi-square, ANOVA, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were used for statistical analyses (p < 0.05 was considered significant).
Results: A statistically significant difference in average score values for both mothers and fathers was observed for the scales, Overprotection (p = 0.007) and Emotional warmth (p = 0.001), but not for Rejection (p = 0.073), Favouring (p = 0.128) or Inconsistency (p = 0.083).
Conclusion: We suggest that the therapeutic programme for atopic dermatitis requires improvement, with the addition of psychological testing and subsequent psychotherapy to standard diagnostic procedures.
Keywords: atopic dermatitis; children; parenting styles.