Features of coping strategies and eating behavior in adolescents with diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious chronic disease that requires constant therapy to maintain a stable state of the body. In adolescents with diabetes during hormonal changes, in addition to physiological causes, the success of therapy is influenced by psychological causes occurring against the background of the crisis of adolescence, which affects changes in the emotional state of a teenager and his behavior, and complicates age adaptation. They can also manifest themselves at the behavioral level through coping strategies (CS) — ways of experiencing and solving problems in a stressful situation. In this paper, 40 adolescents diagnosed with diabetes mellitus were studied in order to study the features of the use of COP and eating behavior (PP), as well as their relationship. The predominance of the emotionogenic type of PP was revealed, with relatively fewer manifestations of the restrictive and external types of PP. Revealed. that despite the absence of signs of PP disorders, nutrition is used by adolescents as a way of experiencing negative emotions that do not reach a pathological level. The leading COP in adolescents with DM are «Positive reassessment» and «Escape-avoidance. When using a restrictive type of eating behavior, COP «Confrontation», «Self-control», «Acceptance of responsibility», «Escape-avoidance» are more often observed. The obtained data can be used in the construction of a differentiated psychotherapeutic approach in adolescents with diabetes.