Psychological Effects of a Special Summer Camp on Juvenile Diabetics

Abstract

A group of children with diabetes mellitus were evaluated for self-esteem and manifest anxiety before and after attending a special summer camp. Both males and females showed significant increases in their self-esteem and decreases in manifest anxiety. In both areas, the girls showed a greater improvement than the boys but this was thought to be due partially to the lower initial self-esteem in the females. A comparison was made between these children and a matched group of diabetic children who didnot attend camp. In this group, there was also an improvement in both variables on retesting. Theimprovements for the camp group were always greater than for the controls, but only in the case of female self-esteem was the difference statistically significant.