Adjusting to chronic illness. The role of social support and illness identity

Abstract

Having a chronic illness can pose major challenges in daily life. The degree to which patients succeed in integrating their illness into their identity could partially explain why certain patients experience difficulties, whereas others succeed in adjusting to their illness. Hence, the present project proposes the concept of illness identity to capture the degree to which chronic illness is integrated into one's identity and focuses on four illness identity dimensions: engulfment, rejection, acceptance, and enrichment. The main goal is to apply an integrative, developmental approach assessing these illness identity dimensions in three different chronic illnesses: Type 1 diabetes, congenital heart disease, and epilepsy. Such an approach allows for examining both illness-specific and trans-diagnostic processes and mechanisms. Three main research objectives will be addressed: (1) to examine the development of illness identity over time; (2) to investigate how the four illness identity dimensions may influence illness-specific and psychological functioning; and (3) to investigate how personality, illness perceptions, and coping are related to the four illness identity dimensions over time.status: publishe