Individual and family factors impacting diabetic control in the adolescent: a preliminary study

The focus of this preliminary study is the impact of family and individual factors on diabetes control for the adolescent. Adolescents between the age of 15 and 18 years and their parents participated in this study. Questionnaires completed by subjects included FACES III, FILE, Social Support Inventory, and the Kvebaek Family Sculptures. Diabetic control was determined by measuring glycosylated hemoglobin. Subjects were asked to identify how they perceived family cohesion, family dysfunction, relationship distance, and social support. Initial analysis, utilizing bivariate correlations because of the small sample size, revealed statistically significant correlations between the adolescent's perception of family cohesion and diabetes control. Moreover, the more dysfunctional the parents perceived the family system, the worse the diabetic control of the adolescent. Adolescents with better diabetic control had fathers who perceived a greater distance between the mother-father relationship as well as a greater distance between the ideal father-patient relationship. Patients who perceived their mothers as nonsupportive experienced worse diabetic control. Yet patients who perceived they had more social support experienced better control of their diabetes. The more disengaged the family system, the worse the diabetic control for the adolescent.