Experimentally-induced learned helplessness in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

To determine whether adolescents with type 1 diabetes are more at risk for learned helplessness than their healthy peers.

Twenty-three adolescents with diabetes and 25 controls completed a solvable or unsolvable concept formation task. All completed pre- and post-task performance and attribution ratings, and later completed an anagram-solving task to determine if perceived helplessness on the first task would negatively impact performance on the second.

Participants in the unsolvable condition solved fewer anagrams; those with diabetes did not show weaker performance than controls. Participants in the solvable condition (diabetes and controls) showed an increase in internal attributions from before the concept formation task to after. In the unsolvable condition, only participants with diabetes made more external attributions for their failure.

Contrary to the only other controlled study to use this paradigm in youth with chronic illness, adolescents with diabetes were not more susceptible to learned helplessness.