Chutima  Tedsiri.  1994.  Buddhist and Psychological Characteristics
of Parents as Related to Child Care With Chronic Illness in
Thalassemic Children.  Dissertation, M.S 
(Behavioral Science) Behavioral Science Research Institute 


                   The purpose of this study was to find the related variable
factors and the best presictors of child care practices with chronic lillness.
The variale factors were divided into Buddhist characteristics (the Buddhist
beliefs and the Buddhist practices). psychological characteristics related to
child care (the anxiety about ill child, the attitude towards the child and the
internal locus of control of child care). psycho-social characteristics (the
perceived social support) and bio-social characteristics. 
                   The sample consisted of 200 parents of  thalassemic
children who attended for follow-up at three out-patient clinics of
Chulalongkorn Hospital, Siriraj Hospital and Children Hospital during June
to August, 1993.  The instruments were the Bio- Social Characteristics
questionnaire, the Child Care Practices with Chronic Illness questionnaire,
the Buddhist Beliefs and Buddhist Practices questionnaire, the Anxiety
about Ill Child questionnaire, the Attitude towards the child questionnaire,
the Internal Locus of Control of Child Care questionnaire and the
Perceived social support questionnaire. The statistics used in analyzing
these data were the Three-way Analysis of varience, the Pearson Product
Moment Correlation Coeficients and the Stepwised Multiple Regression
Analysis. 
                The results were as follows : 
                1.  The parents who had more marks in buddhist beliefs,
Buddhist practices, percieved social support, internal locus of control of
caring, attitude towards the child family income and educational level but
had less anxiety about the ill child performed better child care practices than
those who had less marks in each factors. The comparison of the same
independent variables revealed statistical significant. The best significant
factor that changed child care practices of parents was the parents' Buddhist
beliefs (p < .001). 
                2.  There was significantly interaction effect between Buddhist
beliefs, Buddhist practices and family income and the change in child care
practices with chronic illness (p< .05) in the following cases: 
                    2.1  In rich parents who had more marks in Buddhist beliefs
and Buddhist practices performed better child care practices than those rich
parents who had less marks in 
both  Buddhist beliefs and Buddhist practices. 
                    2.2  In poor parents who had more marks in Buddhist beliefs
and Buddhist practices performed better child care practices than those poor
parents who had less marks in 
both Buddhist beliefs and Buddhist practices. 
                3.  There was significantly interaction effect between Buddhist
beliefs or Buddhist 
practices and the number of children in the family and the change in child
care practices with chronic illness (p< .01 and p< .05) in the following
cases: 
                    3.1  In  parents who had a small number of children and had
more marks in buddhist beliefs or Buddhist practices performen better child
care than those who had a large number of children and had less marks in
Buddhist beliefs or Buddhist practices. 
                    3.2  In parents who had a large number of children and had
more marks in Buddhist beliefs or Buddhist practices performed better child
care pactices than those who had a large number of children and had less
marks in Buddhist beliefs or Buddhist practices. 
                4.  Parents' Buddhist beliefs and Buddhist practices had positive
relationship with their internal locus of control of caring and attitude
towards the child but had negative relationship with the anxiety about the ill
child with satatistical significant at the .001  level. 
                5.  The predictors that could significantly predicted the child care
practices with chronic illness were Buddhist beliefs, internal locus of
control of caring, Attitude towards the child and family income. The
determination power was 58% and statistically significant at the .001 level. 

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