Dissimilarity in adolescent and maternal representations of Type 1 diabetes: exploration of relations to adolescent well‐being

Abstract

Chronic illness in children and young people exists in a social context and the management of diabetes requires an ongoing supportive relationship between parent and child. The results show a high degree of consistency in the beliefs adolescents and their mothers hold, and such congruence is presumed to benefit psychological well-being. However, the mediators and moderators for family belief processes are unclear and several possibilities are discussed.

The association between discrepancy in illness representations on distress in stroke patients and carers

“…Previous research examining the impact of carers' illness representations on patient outcomes within other chronic conditions has produced mixed results with some studies finding carer beliefs to be associated with patient outcomes [13,30,43,44], whilst others find they are not related to patient outcomes [45,46]. Even when studies have found carer representations to be related to patient outcomes the specific illness representations implicated vary by illness [13].…”

Illness perceptions among carer–survivor dyads are related to psychological distress among Oesophageal cancer survivors

“…We believe that this is the first time that the moderating effect of carer's illness perceptions have been shown in an examination of the psychological distress of people with cancer. Previous research examining the effect of relatives' or carers' perceptions on psychological adjustment of patients with other chronic illness indicates mixed results in that in some cases the relative's perceptions are not related to the patient's psychological distress [20,23], whereas in other research there is a relationship [11,12,19,21,22,25]. However, even in this latter group of research studies, the specific illness perceptions which correlate significantly with patient distress differ, perhaps as a result of the different chronic illnesses under investigation.…”

“…Patient and relative scores have been categorized in terms of their similarity or dissimilarity [12,19]; relative scores have been subtracted from patient scores to provide an estimate of incongruence [13,[20][21][22]; and patient and relative scores have been entered as separate covariates in a regression analysis [23,24]. However, for our analyses, we hypothesized that the carer's illness perceptions may moderate the relationship between the survivor's illness perceptions and their level of psychological distress (see [11,25]).…”

Dissimilarity in mother and adolescent illness representations of type 1 diabetes and negative emotional adjustment

“…Family members, however, can differ in the specific ways they represent the illness (e.g., chronicity, consequences, control) and such differences hold important implications for adjustment (Leventhal, Brissete, & Leventhal, 2002;Weinman, Heijmans, & Figueiras, 2002). Dyadic dissimilarity in illness representations and relations to patient adjustment has only recently been examined with mixed results (Figueiras & Weinman, 2003;Heijmans, de Ridder, & Bensing, 1999;Law, 2002). Small sample sizes, the study of different illnesses, different patientcaregiver dyads (e.g., husband-wife vs. parent-child), and variability in conceptualizations of dissimilarity have hampered our understanding of the relation between dyad dissimilarity and adjustment.…”

“…Dissimilarity has been measured by either examining the mean differences between patient and carer (parent or spouse) on the IPQ (Heijmans et al, 1999;Law, 2002) or constructing discrete groups reflecting whether patient and carer are both high, both low, or discrepant on subscales (Figueiras & Weinman, 2003). In the only study to date regarding adolescents' and their mother's illness representations, Law (2002) found that mean differences in illness representations were not related to the adolescent's negative psychosocial adjustment. As the authors note, however, Law's study had a small sample (30 adolescents and 26 mothers), which may have affected the power to detect effects and used a single measure of psychosocial adjustment not traditionally used in the literature.…”