Original articleIdentity Development, Coping, and Adjustment in Emerging Adults With a Chronic Illness: The Sample Case of Type 1 Diabetes
Section snippets
Coping and adjustment in diabetes
Type 1 diabetes creates serious intrusions into the lives of emerging adults, who must negotiate a delicate balance between adhering to a diabetes management regimen and addressing normative developmental tasks [6]. Consequently, diabetes management may conflict with issues relating to identity and psychosocial development [3]. Having diabetes might delay (or even prevent) some emerging adults from addressing important developmental tasks such as identity development [7]. Several studies,
Participants and procedure
The Belgian Diabetes Registry [22] prospectively registered 5,559 diabetic patients. Of these patients, 1,111 fulfilled the following criteria: Dutch speaking, presence of type 1 diabetes, age 18–30 years, and available home address. The first 500 individuals were invited to participate, and 194 returned the completed questionnaires (39% participation rate). The mean age of diabetes onset was 15 years. A sample of 344 emerging adults without diabetes was also used (53.7% participation rate).
Research question 1
Table 2 provides mean identity scores for the combined sample (N = 538). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) conducted by diabetic status, with the identity dimensions as dependent variables, yielded a significant multivariate effect, Wilks' λ = .97; F(5,530) = 3.00; p < .05, η2 = .03. Follow-up univariate analyses in Table 2 indicated that individuals with diabetes scored lower on exploration in breadth and in depth.
We next extracted identity statuses using two-step cluster analysis
Discussion
Emerging adulthood, with identity development representing a core developmental issue [1], is a critical juncture in the course of physical health and psychosocial development [33]. Consequently, the present study investigated the impact of identity development on psychosocial and illness-specific outcomes in a sample of emerging adults aged 18–30 years with type 1 diabetes. Illness coping was examined as a mediator of this identity-outcome pathway.
First, with respect to research question 1,
Acknowledgment
The first author is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO).
References (36)
- et al.
Coping with everyday stress and links to medical and psychosocial adaptation in diabetic adolescents
J Adolesc Health
(2003) - et al.
Capturing ruminative exploration: Extending the four-dimensional model of identity formation in late adolescence
J Res Person
(2008) - et al.
Effect of type I diabetes on psychosocial maturation in young adults
J Adolesc Health
(2007) - et al.
One-year follow-up effects of diabetes rehabilitation for patients with prolonged self-management difficulties
Patient Educ Couns
(2006) Cluster analysis
- et al.
Anxiety and depression in juvenile diabetes
Clin Psychol Rev
(2003) Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties
Am Psychol
(2000)Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road From the Late Teens Through the Twenties
(2004)Diabetic Adolescents and Their Families: Stress, Coping, and Adaptation
(2001)- et al.
Adolescent health psychology
J Consult Clin Psychol
(2002)
A developmental perspective on adolescent health and illness: An introduction to the special issue
J Pediatr Psychol
Transitioning from pediatric to adult care: A new approach to the post-adolescent young person with type 1 diabetes
Diabetes Care
The long branch of phase–environment fit: Concurrent and longitudinal implications of match and mismatch among diabetic and nondiabetic youth
J Adolesc Res
Psychological adjustment to IDDM: 10-Year follow-up of an onset cohort of child and adolescent patients
Diabetes Care
Chronic disease and perceived developmental progression in adolescence
Dev Psychol
The coping styles of adolescents with type 1 diabetes are associated with degree of metabolic control
Diabetes Care
Diabetes-related emotional distress in Dutch and U.S. diabetic patients: Cross-cultural validity of the Problem Areas in Diabetes Scale
Diabetes Care
Self-efficacy impacts self-care and HbA1c in young adults with type I diabetes
Psychosom Med
Cited by (109)
“It's a part of what I am, but not all of who I am”: A qualitative study of identity formation in adolescents and emerging adults with type 1 diabetes
2024, SSM - Qualitative Research in HealthPsychosocial Outcomes in Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes: Associations With Grade Level and Disease Duration
2023, Journal of Pediatric Health CareNeeds of young adults with type 1 diabetes during life transitions – An Australian-Danish experience
2022, Patient Education and CounselingCultural adaption and psychometric validation of the Danish Illness Identity Questionnaire (IIQ-DK) in adolescents and emerging adults with type 1 diabetes
2022, HeliyonCitation Excerpt :Chronic illness, such as diabetes, is known to affect individuals' sense of self and identity, imposing identity changes and challenges [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Further, identity constitutes an important mechanism in how individuals manage their illness [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. It may either support or hinder an individual's management behaviours, depending on how the illness is integrated into the identity [14, 15].
Differences in Self-Rated Versus Parent Proxy–Rated Vision-Related Quality of Life and Functional Vision of Visually Impaired Children
2021, American Journal of Ophthalmology