Ego development and chronic illness in adolescents

To examine the effects of chronic illness on the psychological growth process known as ego development, scores were compared on the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test for 36 teens (16 boys, 20 girls) with chronic illness and 50 teens (16 boys, 34 girls) without chronic illness. Their ages ranged from 13 to 21 years, with a mean of 17.4 years. Most were Black (37%) or Hispanic (41%) and lived in poor or working-class neighborhoods. When age, sex, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) scores were controlled in multiple regression analyses, no direct association between ego development stage and presence of chronic illness, severity of illness, age at onset, or duration of illness was found. Analysis of the chronically ill group alone revealed a significant PPVT X Severity interaction, indicating that ego development in chronically ill teens is lower when illness is more severe and verbal IQ is higher.

Association (psychology · Cognition · Developmental psychology · Id, ego and super-ego · Loevinger's stages of ego development · Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test · Psychiatry · Sentence completion tests · Adolescent and Pediatric Healthcare · Child Therapy and Development · Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life · Clinical Psychology · Ego Development and Educational Practices · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Intelligence and maturity

  Lawrence D Cohn, P Michiel Westenberg•Journal of Personality and Social…•2004

  Add to list