[Symptoms, self concept and developmental delay in healthy and chronically ill adolescents with type I diabetes]

In a prospective four-year longitudinal study 108 adolescents with diabetes and 107 healthy adolescents are being compared. In this paper data are presented from the initial assessment, in which psychopathology in the two groups was compared. In addition, the effect of diabetes on psychosocial development was examined. Several questionnaires were administered to assess symptomatology, self-concept and progress on certain developmental tasks. Regarding symptomatology, diabetic youths described themselves as more normal, i.e. having fewer clinical symptoms, than did the healthy controls. In addition, they had remarkably high scores on a scale of social desirability. This latter result points to a defence mechanism. Only the group of males with poorly controlled diabetes openly acknowledged that they had problems. All of the diabetics showed clear delays in psychosocial development compared with their healthy agemates. There were significant delays in developmental areas involving achievement of autonomy from parents and orientation towards member of one's own age group (regardless of sex), and the subjects with diabetes put less emphasis than the healthy controls on the importance of being successful in these areas in the future.