The Impact of Traumatic Event Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms on Cognitive and Achievement Abilities of Youth with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Lower performance on measures of neuropsychological and academic ability has been noted in adolescents with either Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) or exposure to traumatic life events. This present study looked to gather information on trauma exposure and symptoms in adolescents with T1DM. The first aim was to compare the neuropsychological and academic achievement performance of Type I Diabetes Mellitus positive adolescents who had experienced a traumatic event with those who had not. Second, the study explored if T1DM positive adolescent’s performance on neuropsychological and academic achievement could be predicted by the number and severity of traumatic stress symptoms they experienced. Finally, the study aimed to explore the nature of trauma exposure of its T1DM positive adolescent participants. Results found limited evidence participants who self-reported trauma exposure performed worse than those who did not on a measure of perceptual reasoning; those with parent-reported trauma exposure scored lower on a measure of visual perception and reasoning as well as an assessment of calculation ability than those whose parents did not. As trauma symptoms scores as reported by either self- or parent-report increased, participant scores on measures of general cognitive ability and attention decreased. As self-reported trauma symptoms increased, performance on perceptual reasoning and psychomotor ability decreased. As parent-reported trauma symptoms increased, vocabulary and verbal abilities decreased. In addition to the results noted for trauma symptom scores, the as the number of self-reported symptoms increased, executive functioning, vocabulary, and verbal abilities decreased. While parent-reported trauma symptoms were not associated with decreased performance on any academic measure, as self-reported trauma symptoms scores increased math calculation, reading comprehension, and writing fluency scores decreased.