PhD defence M.I. (Marjolijn) Bal

Below is a brief summary about the dissertation:

Through advancements in healthcare and medication, more children with chronic physical conditions reach adulthood. Developing into an adult is very challenging for this subgroup. Adaptive tasks related to living with a chronic condition can hinder the accomplishment of age-appropriate developmental tasks. The psychosocial development of adolescents and young adults with chronic physical conditions lags behind compared to healthy age mates. It is important to educate them and to train skills for independent living with a chronic physical condition. Supporting young people with chronic physical conditions in their self-management is crucial. However, systematic insights into the content, effective intervention elements and effectiveness of self-management support are lacking. Therefore, part one of this thesis (Chapter 2-4) explored the content, effective intervention elements and effectiveness of self-management support for children, adolescents, and young adults with chronic physical conditions. In addition, we investigated the characteristics of a subgroup of adolescents with chronic physical conditions who are vulnerable for a delay in psychosocial development. It is important to identify this subgroup, in order to provide timely self-management support.

In the transition to adulthood, finding suitable work is challenging for young adults with chronic physical conditions. They reported several barriers for finding and maintaining employment: problems with transport to work, limited accessibility of buildings, limited adaption of workplaces or working conditions, discrimination and low self-esteem. The work participation of young adults with chronic physical conditions is low compared to healthy age-mates. Part two of this thesis (Chapter 5-8) addressed vocational rehabilitation interventions for young adults with chronic physical conditions. In this part we investigated the effectiveness of vocational support in general and of the intervention ‘At Work’ specifically.