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Good Cop, Bad Cop: Quality of Parental Involvement in Type 1 Diabetes Management in Youth

  • Psychosocial Aspects (KK Hood, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Sustained parental involvement in diabetes management has been generally advised to counteract the deteriorating adherence and glycemic control often seen during adolescence, yet until recently, little attention has been given to the optimal amount, type, and quality of parental involvement to promote the best health outcomes for adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). This review synthesizes research regarding the involvement of caregivers—primarily mothers and fathers—of youth with T1D, with a focus on biopsychosocial outcomes. The recent literature on parental involvement in diabetes management highlights a shift in focus from not only amount but also the types (e.g., monitoring, problem-solving) and quality (e.g., warm, critical) of involvement in both mothers and fathers. We provide recommendations for ways that both parents can remain involved to facilitate greater collaboration in shared direct and indirect responsibility for diabetes care and improve outcomes in youth with T1D.

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Conflict of Interest

Sarah S. Jaser has received grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Mackenzie T. Young, Jadienne H. Lord, Niral J. Patel, and Meredith A. Gruhn declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with animal subjects performed by any of the authors. With regard to the authors’ research cited in this paper, all procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Mackenzie T. Young, Jadienne H. Lord, Niral J. Patel, Meredith A. Gruhn & Sarah S. Jaser

  2. 2200 Children’s Way, Nashville, TN, USA

    Mackenzie T. Young, Jadienne H. Lord, Niral J. Patel, Meredith A. Gruhn & Sarah S. Jaser

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  1. Mackenzie T. Young
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  2. Jadienne H. Lord
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Correspondence to Sarah S. Jaser.

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Young, M.T., Lord, J.H., Patel, N.J. et al. Good Cop, Bad Cop: Quality of Parental Involvement in Type 1 Diabetes Management in Youth. Curr Diab Rep 14, 546 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0546-5

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