Abstract
UNLABELLED: To test whether parenting stress and the quality of parent-child interaction were associated with glycemic control and quality of life (QoL) in young children (0-7 years) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), we videotaped 77 families with a young child with T1DM during mealtime (including glucose monitoring and insulin administration). Parent-child interactions were scored with a specifically designed instrument. Questionnaires assessed general and disease-related parenting stress and (diabetes-specific (DS)) QoL. HbA(1c) (glycemic control) was extracted from the medical records. Both general and disease-related parenting stress were associated with a lower (DS)QoL (r ranged from -0.39 to -0.70, p < 0.05), but not with HbA(1c) levels. Furthermore, with regard to the parent-child interaction, emotional involvement of parents (r = 0.23, p < 0.05) and expressed discomfort of the child (r = 0.23, p < 0.05) were related to suboptimal HbA(1c) levels. There was no clear pattern in the correlations between parent-child interaction and (DS)QoL.
CONCLUSION: The results support the notion that diabetes does not only affect the child with T1DM: T1DM is a family disease, as parenting factors (like stress and parent-child interactions) are associated with important child outcomes. Therefore, it is important for health-care providers to not only focus on the child with T1DM, but also on the family system.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 329-38 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | European Journal of Pediatrics |
Volume | 175 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Blood Glucose
- Child
- Child, Preschool
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/psychology
- Female
- Glycated Hemoglobin A/analysis
- Humans
- Male
- Parent-Child Relations
- Parenting/psychology
- Parents/psychology
- Quality of Life/psychology
- Stress, Psychological/psychology
- Surveys and Questionnaires