Children's Coping With Diabetes: Understanding the Role of Cognitive Development

Abstract

Asked diabetic children at two levels of cognitive maturity to describe their efforts to cope with diabetes-related stress. Results revealed certain develop mental trends. Relative to more cognitively mature youngsters, the coping styles ofpreformal operational children showed greater emphasis on primary con trol coping (trying to directly change stressful conditions). Secondary con trol coping (trying to adjust to circumstances as they are) increased with cognitive maturity, however, overall, primary control and instrumental coping strategies appeared salient for both groups of youngsters. The nature of these developmental trends and their implications for children's disease-related adjustment are discussed.