Koen Raymaekers

• PhD. Psychology & MSc. Statistics
• Researcher at KU Leuven

Background Despite clear evidence that peers are crucial for youth development, research on the role of peers for youth with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is scarce. Purpose The present study identified trajectory classes of perceived peer functioning in youth with T1D, based on peer support and extreme peer orientation (EPO). Further, classes were compar...

True causality is impossible to capture with observational studies. Nevertheless, within the boundaries of observational studies, researchers can follow three steps to answer causal questions in the most optimal way possible. Researchers must: (a) repeatedly assess the same constructs over time in a specific sample; (b) consider the temporal sequen...

Youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) must adhere to a complex treatment regimen to prevent health complications. Friends may provide diabetes-specific support to help youth manage diabetes, but evidence on whether youth benefit from diabetes-specific friend support is inconclusive. The present study first investigated whether satisfaction with friend s...

Objective Friendships and romantic relationships are important sources of support that contribute to well-being for youth across adolescence and emerging adulthood and may be especially important for those with a chronic illness. We examined gender differences in trajectories of peer relationships among those with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and how they...

The literature on the role of peer support for psychological well-being and disease management among youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) is mixed. In this topical review, we use self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework to understand the conditions under which peer support is helpful or unhelpful regarding psychological well-being and diabetes ma...

Background Siblings of pediatric cancer survivors are increasingly recognized as a potential vulnerable group requiring focused psychosocial support. However, little is known whether the experience of having a sibling with cancer affects their identity formation and personality traits. This study aimed to compare adolescent and emerging adult sibli...

Cardiovascular research frequently involves comparing patient-reported outcomes across groups. These groups can include individuals from different countries or that have different cardiovascular conditions, and it is frequently assumed that their understanding of the assessed outcome is similar. However, to ascertain that this is indeed the case, m...

Objetivo: Tener diabetes tipo 1 (T1D, por sus siglas en inglés) puede complicar la tarea de desarrollo normativo de la formación de la identidad personal en la adolescencia y la edad adulta emergente. Además de explorar y comprometerse con opciones de identidad en diferentes ámbitos de la vida, los jóvenes con T1D necesitan integrar su enfermedad e...

Background: With the introduction of non-suicidal self-injury disorder (NSSI-D) in DSM-5, the field obtained a standardised set of criteria to study those engaging in more severe and chronic NSSI. To date, no previous research has studied the development of NSSI-D longitudinally, leaving questions on its stability and potential prospective predict...

Objetivo: Los efectos psicológicos a largo plazo del cáncer infantil varían, con los sobrevivientes de cáncer infantil informando síntomas depresivos, miedo a la recurrencia del cáncer y descubrimiento de beneficios. Dado que el cáncer se considera una enfermedad familiar, la investigación del contexto de los padres puede proporcionar información s...

The premise of this study was to gain more insight into whether type 1 diabetes (T1D) can impact how youth perceive parents and peers. To address limitations of previous observational studies comparing youth with T1D to control youth, propensity weighting was used to mimic a randomized controlled trial. A total of 558 youth with T1D and 426 control...

The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) introduced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), provides a dimensional operationalization of personality disorders and brings into account developmental tasks typical to adolescence, which makes it more suitable to apply to personality disorder sy...

To advance our understanding of adolescents’ identity formation and how it may play into their psychological functioning, this study investigated developmental trajectory classes of adaptive and disturbed dimensions of identity formation, and whether adolescents belonging to different trajectory classes develop differently on self-esteem, resilienc...

Background: AND AIMS A chronic feeling of fatigue occurs in up to 85% of childhood cancer survivors (CCS). This phenomenon has a detrimental effect on quality of life, reintegration in daily life activities and psychosocial functioning of the patient. Therefore, it is important to elucidate potential individual risk and protective factors. Method...

Background Patient empowerment is associated with improvements in different patient-reported and clinical outcomes. However, despite being widely researched, high quality and theoretically substantiated disease-generic measures of patient empowerment are lacking. The few good instruments that are available have not reported important psychometric p...

Background Neuromuscular disorders (NMD) are intrusive medical conditions with implications for psychosocial development. Objectives This paper explores illness perceptions and illness identity dimensions of youth with NMD. First, we compare illness identity outcomes and illness perceptions of NMD patients with a comparison group of adolescents wi...

We examined support for type 1 diabetes in casual versus committed romantic relationships and links to blood glucose, self-care, and affect in 101 young adults (Mage 18.8). Individuals provided survey and daily measures of support and blood glucose and affect during a 14-day diary period. Survey data indicated individuals viewed partners as helpful...

Objective The interplay and longitudinal associations between positive and negative illness-related experiences in childhood cancer survivors and their families remain unclear. Therefore, benefit finding, cancer-related worries, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction were prospectively investigated in childhood cancer survivors and parents. Dir...

Objective Identity formation was investigated in adolescent and emerging adult cancer survivors from a (neo-)Eriksonian perspective by comparing survivors to control participants. In survivors, associations between identity and clinical/demographical variables and general and illness-specific functioning were investigated. Design Childhood cancer...

Objectives: Prior research has linked illness identity—or the extent to which the illness is integrated into one’s identity—to diabetes-specific functioning. Four illness identity dimensions have been identified: rejection, acceptance, engulfment, and enrichment. As longitudinal research on this topic is scarce, this study examined developmental tr...

Objective Type 1 diabetes in youth has a wide‐ranging impact on families. This study aimed at a better understanding of experiences and difficulties that parents may encounter in their lives. Parental illness intrusiveness (i.e., a parent's perception that the illness of one's child interferes with one's personal life) was prospectively examined in...

Youth with type 1 diabetes are confronted with the challenging task of integrating diabetes into their identity. This integration process, referred to as illness identity, may play an important role in how youth with type 1 diabetes cope with normative and illness-specific challenges. In line with socio-ecological theorizing, the present study inve...

Aims: A family approach was applied to examine youth, maternal, and paternal control perceptions in relation to type 1 diabetes outcomes in adolescents and emerging adults. Mean levels of personal and treatment control were compared among patients and parents. Their associations with diabetes outcomes were examined as well. Methods: The sample incl...

Introduction: Refractory epilepsy is an intrusive condition with important implications for daily functioning in emerging and young adulthood. The present study examined the degree to which refractory epilepsy is integrated in one's identity, and examined how such a sense of illness identity was related to health-related quality of life (HRQOL)....

Objective: The increasing importance of peers in adolescence and emerging adulthood has been widely acknowledged. However, longitudinal research linking the peer context to diabetes management and outcomes is scarce. The present longitudinal study in a large sample of youths with type 1 diabetes related both positive and negative peer variables to...

People suffering from idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) experience numerous non-specific symptoms that they attribute to EMF. The cause of this condition remains vague and evidence shows that psychological rather than bioelectromagnetic mechanisms are at work. We hypothesized a role of media reports...