COPING STRATEGIES OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESC ENTS WITH DIABETES - THE GERMAN-LANGUAGE VERSION OF THE KIDCOPE

Coping with disease-related and everyday problems in chronically ill c hildren and adolescents have not yet been studied with a standardized instrument in German speaking countries. Thus we have translated the K IDCOPE (Spirito et al. 1988) into German and conducted a cross-section al study on coping behaviours of children and adolescents with diabete s mellitus. 43 children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years have been t ested; metabolic control has been identified by HbA1c-values. The inte rnal consistency of the KIDCOPE (German Version) is sufficient. Childr en most frequently use wishful chinking, social support and problem so lving. Adolescents rely on resignation (especially with disease-relate d stressors), but also wishful thinking, social support, problem-solvi ng and cognitive restructuring. Self-criticism and blaming others were used only rarely by both age-groups. Children and adolescents rate so cial support as the most efficient coping strategy. Whereas almost no gender differences occured, significant situational differences could be found, which confirm the person-situation-transactions-model of Laz arus. The quality of metabolic control showed no effect on frequencies of coping strategies. The KIDCOPE is a brief self-report rest for sch ool aged children and adolescents. It can be easily applied in clinica l settings to assess coping with disease-related and everyday problems .