Purpose/Objectives: To evaluate and synthesize the evidence regarding recognition of illness symptoms in children by adolescent mothers. Data Synthesis: Symptom recognition and evaluation of ilness severity is a need factor that prompts caregivers to seek care for ill children. Most of the limited research has been done on chronic disease exacerbation recognition (asthma). There is a great variability in parental ability to recognize illness and decide on proper management. Health care providers and parents have different perceptions on acuity of illnesses in children. Many adolescent mothers have been idnetified as having inadequate parenting skills including illness recognition and management. Interventional studies have had minimal success in curbing nonurgent emergency department use for minor acute illness management in children. Conclusions: Further research on illness symptom recognition should be focused on general illness symptoms with new parents, especially those at risk for poor parenting outcomes. There is great difficulty assessing recognition of illness severity at the time of the health care decision making process. Focusing on changing health care utilization patterns may be premature before adequate research on caregivers' ability to differentiate a mildly ill child from a child requiring immediate care is done. Implications for Nursing: Improved assessment of parental recognition of child illness is needed with consideration of an objective measure that is easy to use and nonthreatening to parents and caregivers.
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