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Adolescent views of diabetes-related parent conflict and support: a focus group analysis
K Weinger1, K A O'Donnell, M D Ritholz
1Department of Behavioral & Mental Health, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. katie.weinger@joslin.harvard.edu
Purpose:
To increase understanding of adolescent-parent diabetes-related conflicts and supports in the management of type 1 diabetes by means of a focus group research approach.
Methods:
Twenty-four adolescents (10 boys and 14 girls, age 13-15 years; 97% white) participated in three same-sex focus groups at two diabetes summer camps. The focus group leader used a prepared set of open-ended questions to guide the 90-minute sessions. Sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by a set procedure for qualitative analysis to identify the adolescents' perspectives on parent-adolescent sources of diabetes-related conflict and support.
Results:
Adolescents reported the following sources of diabetes-related conflict: parental worry and intrusive behaviors; parental lack of understanding and blaming behaviors, and the parents focus on the future vs. the adolescent focus on the present. With regard to diabetes-related support, the teens identified parental understanding of the demands of diabetes and parental provision of reassurance about their child's illness and normative functioning.
Conclusions:
Adolescents' perceptions of parental worry, lack of understanding, and resulting intrusive and blaming behaviors are major areas of conflict that need to be addressed in the management of type 1 diabetes.
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