The authors conducted a meta-analysis to examine the relations of benefit finding to psychological and physical health as well as to a specific set of demographic, stressor, personality, and coping correlates. Results from 87 cross-sectional studies reported in 77 articles showed that benefit finding was related to less depression and more positive well-being but also more intrusive and avoidant thoughts about the stressor. Benefit finding was unrelated to anxiety, global distress, quality of life, and subjective reports of physical health. Moderator analyses showed that relations of benefit finding to outcomes were affected by the amount of time that had passed since stressor onset, the benefit finding measured used, and the racial composition of the sample.

These findings highlight the importance of shared responsibility for diabetes self-care through early to middle adolescence.

Background It is not clear from the literature whether children with diabetes have more psychological difficulties than their peers. Purpose This study aims to use meta-analysis to determine if children with diabetes differ from children without a chronic illness in a variety of domains reflecting psychological well-being. Method A meta-analysis was undertaken of 22 studies that compared children with diabetes to a comparison group. Outcomes included depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, and related constructs. Results Children with diabetes were more likely than comparison groups to experience a variety of psychological difficulties. However, these effects were small to medium in magnitude and were typically smaller among more recent studies and studies with well-matched comparison groups. Conclusions This meta-analysis suggests that children with diabetes are at slightly elevated risk for psychological difficulties. Future work will need to help identify children at the highest risk, and to identify factors associated with resilience.