Emotional well-being among adolescents with and without chronic conditions

To investigate whether adolescents with chronic conditions differ from adolescents without chronic conditions in several psychological outcomes. An additional purpose was to explore whether adolescents with chronic conditions differ as a function of the visibility of their conditions.

By means of the Adolescent Health Survey, 1683 students (grades 7-12) with a variety of chronic conditions were compared with 1650 students without chronic conditions in regard to emotional well-being, worries and concerns, and body image. Differences in emotional well-being were examined as a function of perception of family connectedness. Comparisons were also made between adolescents with visible and invisible conditions.

Adolescents with chronic conditions had lower emotional well-being scores, worried more about dying soon and about school or future work, and had poorer body image. For students with and without chronic conditions, higher emotional well-being scores were significantly related to higher levels of family connectedness. The best explanatory variables of emotional well-being were body image, family connectedness, concerns about school and future work, having a disability, and worry about peer relationships, accounting together for 36% of the variance in the outcome variable. No differences were found between adolescents with visible and invisible conditions.

Although adolescents with chronic conditions do less well than adolescents without chronic conditions, having a disability is not the most influential factor on emotional well-being. Family connectedness is of fundamental importance for adolescents' emotional health.