Emotional and Social Issues

Printer Friendly | E-mail This Page | Text Size

Students with diabetes must deal not only with the usual developmental issues of growing up but also with learning to manage this complex disease. Diabetes can affect every facet of life, complicating the task of mastering normal developmental challenges.

For the most part, children do not want to be singled out or made to feel different from their peers. Diabetes care tasks, however, can set them apart and make them feel angry or resentful about their disease. Sometimes, children and teens feel pressured to please caretakers and yet cannot consistently comply with their requests. To appease concerned parents or health care providers, some children report fictitious glucose levels or do not take all their insulin.

Children react differently to having diabetes

They may be accepting, resentful, open to discussing it, or attempt to hide it. Often, the same child will experience all of these feelings over time. School personnel should be aware of the student’s feelings about having diabetes and identify ways to ensure the student is treated the same as others.

Diabetes can be a focal point for conflict within families. One of the biggest tasks for children and adolescents is to become increasingly independent from their parents, but diabetes may compromise independence because parents are concerned about their children’s ability to perform self-care and take responsibility for it. Parents, who are ultimately responsible for their children’s well-being, may be reluctant to allow normal independence in children or teens that have not been able to take care of them­selves properly. This parental concern can lead to increasing struggles with dependence, oppositional behavior, and rebellion. Some adolescent girls, for example, may rebel by not following their insulin regimen because they want to lose weight or avoid gaining weight.

Increasingly, depression is being recognized as quite common among children and teens generally- and even more so in those with diabetes. Health care providers and school personnel must be aware of emotional and behavioral issues and refer students with diabetes and their families for counseling and support as needed.

While it is very important to provide students with assistance and supervision of their diabetes care as needed, it is equally important to enable students to take on the responsibility of learning diabetes self –management and control. The age for transfer of responsibility from caregiver to child varies from child to child and from task to task because children develop and mature at different rates. Students’ ability to participate in self-care also depends upon their willingness to do so. As students are ready, they can assume more responsibility for their care.

Students’ competence and capability for performing diabetes-related tasks are determined by the school health care team and the parents/guardian. Diabetes care depends upon self-management. Ultimately, each person with diabetes becomes responsible for all aspects of self-care, including blood glucose monitoring and insulin administration. Regardless of their level of self-management, however, all students with diabetes may require assistance when blood glucose levels are out of the target range.

Important Notice: Information provided is for general background purposes and is not intended as a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment by a trained professional. You should always consult your physician about any health care questions you may have, especially before trying a new medication, diet, fitness program, or approach to health care issues.

Printer Friendly

E-mail This Page