Charting a path to health: The empowering influence of self‐efficacy for the self‐management of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children and adolescents requires a lifelong commitment to disease control, which involves insulin treatment and constant blood glucose monitoring. Framed by Albert Bandura's self‐efficacy theory, we focused on analysing the impact of domain‐specific self‐efficacy for T1D control in children and adolescents and its relationship with different indicators of glycaemic control over time. The study included 205 participants (56.1% male), including 51.7% children and 48.3% adolescents aged 6–18 (M = 13.27, SD = 3.66) years in four longitudinal phases (6 months between phases). The results revealed that higher self‐efficacy predicted better health outcomes, with more time spent actively monitoring glucose and more time in the target range. The positive effect of self‐efficacy was observed to be maintained over time. This study underscores the importance of taking into account the developmental timing in the onset of T1D. There was a significant relationship between self‐efficacy and glucose indicators in adolescents. Although their glucose indicators were worse, self‐efficacy became more relevant as they moved from parental management to the self‐management of T1D. Implications of the results show the positive effect of self‐efficacy on health per glucose indicators, thus suggesting interventions that promote self‐efficacy in this population.