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. 2023 Jan;28(1):382-397.
doi: 10.1177/13591045221115287. Epub 2022 Jul 19.

Self-evaluation and depression in adolescents with a chronic illness: A systematic review

Emily Hards  1 , Faith Orchard  2 , Sundus Khalid  1 , Clea D'souza  1 , Flora Cohen  1 , Evangeline Gowie  1 , Maria Loades  1   3
Affiliations

Self-evaluation and depression in adolescents with a chronic illness: A systematic review

Emily Hards et al. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a systematic review to establish what is known about the relationship between depression and self-evaluation in adolescents with a chronic illness.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, and hand-searching. We sought to identify primary research that examined both the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between depression and self-evaluation in adolescents with chronic illness. The search resulted in 8941 retrieved articles that were screened against an inclusion criteria. A total of 4 papers were included in the review. The MMAT used to assess study methodological quality.

Results: A narrative synthesis was conducted, and a summary figure was included. These 4 studies included 236 adolescents aged 9-18 years with depression and either Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), chronic pain, headaches, or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The limited existing evidence indicated that that depression was associated with negative self-evaluation in adolescents in some but not all chronic illnesses investigated to date. We also found some evidence that psychological intervention can help to improve self-evaluation, specifically in adolescents with T1D.

Conclusions: More robust studies of the association between self-evaluation and depression in adolescents with a chronic illness is needed, with attention to the nuances of differences between chronic illnesses. The existing evidence indicates that there may be a stronger association in some chronic illnesses. Pilot data suggest that specific psychological therapies may improve self-evaluation, although much more extensive evaluation is needed.

Keywords: Chronic illness; adolescents; depression; self; self-evaluation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram of included and excluded evidence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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