Growing up with asthma may affect children of low socioeconomic status, even when they are able to catch their breath.

A doctoral study by Jen-Hao Chen, now an assistant professor of the MU School of Health Professions, shows that children with asthma in low socioeconomic status families have more attention problems, aggression and fewer social skills.

“I find the biggest impact on children with asthma is aggressive behaviors,” Chen said.

Chen’s findings went on to note that although all children with asthma are at a risk for weak behavioral skills, those of a higher socioeconomic status were less likely to be affected.

Chen’s hypothesis is that children with high socioeconomic status are less affected by asthma because they have access to better resources for asthma management.

The asthma study was inspired by Ariel Kalil, Chen’s doctoral advisor at the University of Chicago, and her work researching the impact of socioeconomic status on families who have children without any chronic illnesses, such as asthma.

“We were both really interested in the role of parents,” Kalil said.

Kalil and Chen studied what effect access to government programs had on the parent’s ability to help their child develop well. However, Chen wanted to discover what extra strain a chronic illness puts on a family and decided to study asthma specifically.

While Chen was guided by his doctoral advisors and professors, he worked mostly alone, using information from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. The program was designed to provide people from parents to politicians with information about early childhood development. During critical developmental stages, the study specifically notes changes in behavioral skills.

According to ECLS-B, they did not exclude children based on chronic illness, disabilities or available services. However, they did take note of these children, as these factors make an impact on their development.

Studying the effects of health on academic achievement — and behavioral skills — is a relatively new approach to studying childhood development.

Chen said he hopes his study will help medical professionals more effectively aid children in dealing with both the physical and behavioral symptoms of asthma.

“Quite often, people consider biology or health as destiny and that it determines everything,” Chen said.

However, with his research, Chen said he hopes to show that better social resources and better social conditions have the capability to “make the patients better or better off,” even if they have an incurable illness.