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Decision-making competence and adherence to treatment in adolescents with diabetes
Victoria A Miller1, Dennis Drotar
1Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, USA. millerv@email.chop.edu.
Objective:
To examine decision-making competence (the ability to form effective plans for managing different situations) in a sample of adolescents with type I diabetes and their parents. We hypothesized that adolescent decision-making competence would mediate the relationship between parent-adolescent communication and adherence to treatment.
Methods:
The sample consisted of 63 adolescents and their parents. Parent-adolescent communication during a problem-solving task was assessed, as well as adolescent maladaptive decision-making (adolescent report), adherence to treatment (parent and provider report; number of glucose tests), and metabolic control (HbA1C).
Results:
Parent-adolescent communication was associated with adherence to treatment but not with adolescent decision-making. Poorer decision-making was associated with lower adherence per parent report but not provider report or the number of glucose tests. Decision-making competence did not mediate the relationships between parent-adolescent communication and adherence.
Conclusions:
These results are consistent with prior research demonstrating associations between parent-adolescent communication and adherence and identify adolescent decision-making competence as another potentially important correlate of adherence. These findings highlight several areas for future research.
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