This work examined associations between health status and the quality of mother-child interactions in early adolescence. It was anticipated that parenting style would differ in families having a child with a chronic illness compared to families with a healthy child. It was also expected that parenting practices would differ in families having a child with a chronic illness and families having a healthy child. It was also expected that differences in behavior would be observed between chronically ill and healthy children during mother-child interaction. Finally, it was expected that there would be a difference observed in the quality of mother-child interaction based on weight status and how mother and child matched in their weight status. The sample included 154 European-American adolescents and their mothers, 78 of whom were boys and 76 whom were girls. There were 39 children with some form of chronic illness; 14 of the children had asthma, 8 had diabetes, and 17 of the children had a Body Mass Index that categorized them as overweight. Results indicated the hypothesized differences were not observed for this sample, and several possible explanations for this are discussed.