Psychological factors in the management of juvenile diabetes¹

The diabetic child and well sibling: Risks to the well child's self‐concept

“…With regard to problems that presumably stem from living with diabetes, there have been several studies of children that have reported such things as reduced self-concept scores (Matthews, Barabas, & Ferrari, 1982), increased levels of dependent behavior, and feelings of depression (Garner & Thompson, 1974;Sullivan, 1978;Turk & Speers, 1983). Among adults, there have been a number of case reports of depression and attempted suicide by insulin overdose (Lindgren, 1960;Martin, Hansen, & Warnes, 1977).…”

“…However, it is often difficult to establish the exact cycles of causality with regard to psychological problems because there is both evidence of psychosomatic diabetes (Minuchin, Rosman, & Baker, 1978;VandenBergh, Sussman, & Titus, 1966) and contentions that psychological problems are products of coping with the disease and not causal or potentiating agents (Garner & Thompson, 1974;Johnson, 1980).…”

Meeting the counseling needs of children with diabetes

“…Concern about the future and financial aspects of management might also represent major sources of stress (Banion, Miles and Carter, 1983;Ory and Kronenfeld, 1980). Families respond differently, however, to diabetes (Frankel, 1975;Garner and Thompson, 1978). Several factors generally influence the family's response to the child's illness: (a) severity of illness, (b) age at onset of illness, (c) nature of illness, (d) family's psychological adjustment prior to the onset of the child's illness, (e) presence or absence of other affected siblings, and (f) cost of treatment (Steinhaur, Mushin and Rae-Grant, 1974).…”

Developmental issues in child health psychology.

“…In the area of treatment regimen self-management, the importance of assessing intellectual, emotional, and social maturity in the child and juvenile diabetic has received attention (Johnson, 1984; Wright, Schaefer, & Solomon, 1979). For example, research has suggested that an age of approximately 12 years is necessary for self-management or self-regulation of both insulin injection and urine testing (Garner & Thompson, 1974; Johnson, 1984; Partridge, Garner, Thompson, & Cherry, 1972). In a review of the relationship between knowledge about diabetics and regimen compliance, Johnson (1984) concluded that diabetes education curricula need to be responsive to the changing cognitive capacities of children and adolescents.…”