Leisure behavior of youth with short stature, delayed puberty and diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

There is some evidence to suggest that adolescents with endocrinological disorders such as short stature (SS), delayed puberty (DP), or diabetes mellitus (DM) may display significant social or psychological problems. The purpose of our study was to examine the leisure behaviors and experiences of these adolescents. Of the 178 adolescents (all of whom had an endocrinological problem) 83 were male and 91 were female. We found the leisure behaviors and experiences of adolescents with SS, DP and DM (the group) were similar to adolescents with other endocrine disorders (comparison group) and to several other non-clinical groups (controls). The group spent the same amount of time in leisure activity as the comparison group. The characteristics of the group's leisure time in regard to boredom, self-determination, self-competence or parental control was the same as the comparison group and minimally different from the control groups. There were no differences among SS, DP, DM or comparison group in degree to which they were 'bothered' by their condition or the recency of the discovery of their condition. Neither botheredness nor recency were related to leisure time characteristics. Recency of the discovery of their endocrine problem was almost significantly related to increased parental control (p<0.062) which was slightly greater for those diagnosed with SS, DP and DM (p<0.080) than in the comparison group. Leisure time activity and behavior of adolescents with SS, DP, and DM was the same as that in other non-clinical adolescents and adolescents with other endocrine disorders.