Teaching assertive communication skills to adolescents with diabetes: evaluation of a camp curriculum.
Diabetes management requires consistently implementing adherence behaviors in a variety of settings. For some adolescents, consistency may be difficult due to problems in communication and assertiveness. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a camp curriculum to teach assertive communication skills to adolescents with diabetes. The curriculum included didactic information, sharing of personal experiences, and role playing. Results showed a significant increase in adolescents' perceptions of their assertiveness from before to after the camp experience, an increase that was still apparent at a 3-month follow-up. No changes were reported in parental perceptions of their adolescents' degree of openness in communicating or in communication problems. In contrast, adolescents reported a significant decrease in their degree of openness in communicating with fathers, with a similar trend for mothers. These results suggest that the curriculum was successful in meeting the primary goal of enhancing the adolescents' assertive communication skills but had a questionable impact on their general communications with parents.
Smith
K E
KE
Schreiner
B
B
Jackson
C
C
Travis
L B
LB
D000293:Adolescent; D001242:Assertiveness; D002165:Camping; D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation