The importance of having fun: Daily play among adults with type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Although play has been linked to psychological and physical well-being in childhood, little work has examined benefits of play in adulthood. Play may be especially important in the context of coping with a chronic illness such as type 1 diabetes as self-care involves a difficult daily process. We hypothesized that daily play with one’s romantic partner would be linked to better mood, greater diabetes disclosure, greater support receipt, greater perceived coping effectiveness with one’s most important daily stressors, and better self-care regarding type 1 diabetes. We examined these hypotheses in a sample of 199 adults with type 1 diabetes. Participants completed daily diary measures of play with their partner and proposed outcomes for 14 days. Daily play was linked to better mood, greater diabetes disclosure to one’s partner, greater support received from one’s partner, and greater perceived coping effectiveness with the day’s most important diabetes and general stressors. However, daily play was unrelated to self-care. Mediation analyses further indicated that positive mood explained links from daily play to perceived coping effectiveness, and diabetes disclosure explained links from daily play to support. These findings indicate that having fun with one’s partner may have important psychological and relationship benefits for individuals with chronic illness. More work needs to be conducted to examine links from daily play to self-care. Implications are discussed.