Possible Interventions to the Emotional and Personality Domains of Children and Adolescents with Osteogenesis Imperfecta in the Course of a Social and Psychological Rehabilitation Program

The article is devoted to the study of the features of the emotional and personal domains of children and adolescents with osteogenesis imperfecta. The effectiveness of the use of a socio-psychological rehabilitation program in the several following areas was also studies. Reducing the severity of aggressiveness and anxiety, developing of a sociability, changing of a self-esteem and the attitude to one's disease, the development of new significant children and adolescents needs with osteogenesis imperfecta. The study involved 58 children and adolescents aged 9–19 years (13.2±2.39 years) with osteogenesis imperfecta, including 36 girls and 22 boys. The control group consisted of 25 children and adolescents aged 9–19 years (13.8±3.12 years) without chronic somatic diseases, including 13 girls and 12 boys. The study was based on the following methods: M. Kuhn’s test “Who am I” (modified by T.V. Rumyantseva, 2006), the “Non-existent animal” method (M.Z. Dukarevich, 1990), an abbreviated version of the “Incomplete sentences” method (V.E. Kagan and I.K. Shats, 2003) and the technique of "Tsvetik-Semitsvetik" (I.M. Vitkovskaya, 2010). The features of the emotional and personal domains of children and adolescents with osteogenesis imperfecta were revealed in comparison with their healthy peers, consisting in a negative assessment of their physical self, the predominance of fear of aggression and a reduced subjective significance of their moral needs. It was noted that the indicator of an adequate idea of their disease increases, negative emotional experiences regarding their disease intensify, and the motivation for recovery increases. This phenomenon interacts with age in children and adolescents with imperfect osteogenesis. The study also partially proved the effectiveness of the proposed rehabilitation program, as a result of which children and adolescents with osteogenesis imperfecta showed positive dynamics in expanding the main parameters of identity, increased self-esteem of their physical self and sociability, and also decreased indicators of verbal aggression and anxiety. The priority of biological and communicative needs has decreased, the needs for personal changes and material needs have come to the fore. As a result of the rehabilitation program in children and adolescents with imperfect osteogenesis, self-reported indicators of fixation on pain decreased; the number of children openly showing emotional experiences regarding the disease has increased.