The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2009 , Vol 51 , Num 3
Ways of coping with epilepsy and related factors in adolescence
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara1,Lütfi Kırdar Kartal Research and Training Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey2,
The aim of this study was to investigate ways of coping and related factors
with regard to the psychopathology of adolescents with epilepsy (AwE). In
this study, 41 AwE and 34 healthy controls were assessed. It was found
that 24% of AwE had attention problems and 41% had overall problems at a
clinical level. The scores for thought problems, attention problems, aggressive
behavior and externalizing problems were higher in the epilepsy group. In
addition, the AwE had lower self-esteem, and as the adolescents had higher
scores for overall problem behavior, they also received lower problem-focused
coping scores. As an adolescent’s self-esteem increases, problem-focused
coping is used more frequently, whereas emotion-focused coping is used less
frequently. It is suggested that interventions to help adolescents improve
their strategies for coping with stress may mitigate some of the problems
with adaptive functioning, which are common in AwE.
Keywords :
epilepsy, adolescence, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, selfesteem, psychopathology, maternal coping, maternal psychopathology, attention problems, psychosocial adaptation.