The shared experience of chronic illness : a comparison study of adolescents

The general topic of this research paper is the experience of living with a chronic illness. This will be explored through adolescents' perceptions of self and of their lives at different periods of time, as indicated through their images and corresponding words. This research compares images and dialogue from two differing groups. One group whose members are living with Juvenile Diabetes, the other serving as a control group, whose members are not living with any type of chronic illness. The comparison aims to determine whether or not the images and words of the diabetic group exhibit more negative responses (as defined by this study) than do those of the control group. This study's hypothesis is as follows: "Combined checklist results of the control group will contain less negative answers than those of the diabetic group." This hypothesis was confirmed through the study. The topics of projective techniques, adolescence, and chronic illness--namely diabetes, will be addressed in addition to a thorough description of the study and of its results. Results are described and examined in both a quantitative and qualitative manner. Though Juvenile Diabetes is the target illness of this study, results may apply to other types of chronic illness. Similarly, results may also offer insight on age groups other than adolescence, which is the population studied in this present research. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other plac