Emotional Factors in Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus: A Study of Early Life Experience of Adolescent Diabetics

The family backgrounds of a group of adolescent diabetics were compared with those of a matched group of nondiabetic chronically ill adolescents; both groups were predominantly from a low socioeconomic level. The diabetic group was found to have a significantly higher incidence of loss and of severe family disturbance. This finding is discussed in relation to findings from other psychosocial studies of juvenile diabetics. The authors advance the hypothesis that juvenile-onset diabetes occurs as a consequence of psychological stress in a physiologically susceptible individual.