Bibliogr. s. 94-96

The study investigated the differences between parental attitudes and marital communication in families of children with type 1 diabetes. Two groups of parents (120 persons) from the Opole and Silesia regions were selected. The first one was the study group: 30 mothers and 30 fathers, staying in marital union, who bring up diabetic child/children with at least 5-year period of the disease. The other one was the control group: 30 mothers and 30 fathers, staying in marital union, who bring up offspring with no chronic disease. The children were from 5 to 18 years old.The results have indicated that diabetics' mothers accept their children less than mothers of healthy children do, but at the same time they are more protective towards their offspring than women from the control group. Their parenting is also more inconsistent than with the fathers of diabetics and parents of healthy children. Fathers of diabetics show a less accepting attitude towards their children than the fathers of healthy children. They also give their children more freedom than the fathers from the control group and than the mothers of diabetics, who are not different in this respect from the mothers of healthy children. The analysis of the marital communication indicates that the fathers of diabetics consider themselves to be less supportive towards their wives than the fathers from the control group. At the same time, they evaluate their wives' supportiveness, involvement and disapproval similarly to the fathers of healthy children, and no significant differences were found between the groups of males in their partners' evaluation. The assessment of marital communication in all three areas is similar for mothers in both study group and control group. However, the former perceive their husbands to be less supportive and less involved in the relationship than the women in the control group.