The importance of social support to chronically ill adolescents

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Improvements in medicine have significantly prolonged life of chronically ill children and adolescents in the past several decades. There is a great variability in adaptation to illness among chronically ill persons--some of them seem to be very well adapted, with almost no problems. However, research results suggest that chronically ill children are more likely to have psychological problems than their healthy peers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eightyfour subjects, all elementary school pupils, participated in the study. The first group included adolescents with chronical illness (malignant illness, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, or asthma), and the second their healthy peers. Depression and social support were evaluated. The Birleson's Depression Scale and Perceived Social Support Scales (forms for friends and for family members) were used. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The results show significant differences for two of the three variables: depression, and perceived social support from family, while there was no significant difference for perceived social support from friends. The results suggest that chronically ill adolescents are more depressed and that they perceive that the social support they receive from their families is lower when compared to their healthy peers. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that chronically ill adolescents are more depressed than their healthy peers. This group of adolescents also perceives that they have less social support from their families than their healthy peers. When it comes to perceived social support from friends, these two groups do not differ.