Relationships and health among emerging adults with and without Type 1 diabetes.

Abstract

Objective The study's goal was to examine the impact of parent and peer relationships on health behaviors and psychological well-being of those with and without type 1 diabetes over the transition to emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood is an understudied developmental period and a high risk period—especially for those with type 1 diabetes. Methods Youth with (n = 117) and without type 1 diabetes (n = 122) completed questionnaires during their senior year of high school and one year later. Measures included supportive and problematic aspects of parent and peer relationships, health behaviors, psychological well-being, and, for those with diabetes, self-care behavior and glycemic control. Results Prospective multiple and logistic regression analysis revealed that friend conflict was a more potent predictor than friend support of changes in health behaviors and psychological well-being. Parent support was associated with positive changes in psychological well-being and decreases in smoking, whereas parent control was related to increases in smoking and depressive symptoms. There was some evidence of cross-domain buffering such that supportive relationships in one domain buffered adverse effects of problematic relationships in the other domain on health outcomes. Conclusions This longitudinal study showed that parent relationships remain an important influence on and peer relationships continue to influence the health behaviors and psychological well-being of emerging adults with and without type 1 diabetes. Parent relationships also have the potential to buffer the adverse effects of difficulties with peers.

Parental and peer support in adolescents with a chronic condition: a typological approach and developmental implications

“…Further, we expected that the experience of either parental or peer support would be related to less internalizing symptoms and better well-being over time as compared to the experience of no support (Helgeson et al, 2014). As early adolescents are still very emotionally dependent on their parents for support (Beyers, 2001), we expected the parental support cluster to be related to less depressive symptoms and better well-being over time as compared to the peer support cluster.…”

“…As parental support has been related to better treatment adherence, we tentatively expected that the combined and parental support clusters would score somewhat better on glycemic control. However, this hypothesis was forwarded cautiously, as previous research found no direct association between parental support and glycemic control (Helgeson et al, 2014).…”

“…Both parental and peer support have been demonstrated to be related to the psychological functioning of adolescents with T1D (La Greca et al, 1995). Further, parental support, but not peer support, has been demonstrated to relate to better treatment adherence (but not directly to better glycemic control) (Helgeson et al, 2014).…”

“…For instance, one study in 4-16 years olds with a chronic condition has demonstrated parental and peer support to be independently related to psychological functioning (Wallander & Varni, 1989). More recent studies have demonstrated that either parental or peer support is related to better psychological functioning as compared to when no support is experienced, as supportive relationships in one domain could protect against adverse effects of impaired relationships in the other domain (Helgeson et al, 2014). Third, most studies focused on maternal support, excluding paternal support.…”

“…Parental support has been demonstrated to relate consistently to adolescents' psychological functioning (Helgeson et al, 2014). Supportive parents indeed make adolescents create a view of themselves as valuable and competent (Bowlby, 1969), which has been demonstrated to be related to adolescents' psychological functioning (Orth et al, 2008).…”