Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the relative influence of illness representations and coping style in determining the psychological adjustment of individuals with diabetes. Leventhal's self-regulation model depicts a dynamics interaction between perceptions of illness related situations and subsequent coping responses and this has been applied to the study of chronic illness, including diabetes, with encouraging findings. Within this framework, a cross-sectional survey design was adopted to investigate the illness representations and coping style employed by 70 adult outpatients with diabetes and the impact of these variables upon psychological adjustment. Previously developed measures of illness representations, specific to diabetes, were used along with the "Ways of Coping" questionnaire and measures of psychological adjustment. The data obtained indicated that illness representations and coping each explained significant additional variance on measures of psychological adjustment after the effects of demographic and illness related variables had been controlled for. Participants presenting with adjustment difficulties exhibited significantly more avoidance coping and perceived their illness as more threatening and as having a greater impact. The results are discussed in terms of the self-regulation paradigm and the possible insight this offers into the adaptation of diabetes sufferers. Implications for clinical interventions are considered, along with directions for future research.