Brief report: psychosocial adjustment in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an ideal disease for investigating adolescent adjustment to chronic illness, given its embarrassing, socially limiting, appearance-changing symptoms and adolescent onset. OBJECTIVE: To compare psychosocial adjustment among adolescents with a chronic illness to that of healthy adolescents and examine the role of adolescent disease onset. METHODS: Participants were 50 adolescents with IBD and their parents, and parents of 42 healthy comparison adolescents who completed questionnaires assessing behavioral, emotional, social, and family functioning. RESULTS: Adolescents with IBD were reported to have worse anxious and/or depressed and social problems than healthy adolescents. More adolescents with IBD were reported to have clinically significant social problems. Those diagnosed during adolescence were reported to have significantly worse social competence scores. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with a chronic illness such as IBD may be at higher risk for specific psychosocial difficulties than healthy adolescents. Diagnosis of a chronic illness during adolescence may have implications for social functioning.