Assessment of Parent-Adolescent Partnership in Diabetes Care

Abstract

Purpose To identify and evaluate psychometric properties of available measures to assess dimensions of parent-adolescent partnership in diabetes care, including parent-adolescent responsibility in diabetes management, parental monitoring, diabetes family conflict, and parental involvement. Methods A literature review that included searches of electronic databases from 1990 to April 2009 was conducted. Instruments were reviewed extracting information about aim, target population, and psychometric properties. Results Eight instruments were identified. Study samples appear to be large enough for psychometric validation but with a small proportion of fathers. The instruments have been designed and evaluated with adolescents and parents in the United States. Most of the instruments have adequate reliability, both for adolescents’ and parents’ forms. Regarding construct validity, factor structure of most of the instruments was evaluated either with exploratory factor analysis or confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, some measures have significant relationships with age in the direction expected or with other outcomes such as adherence or quality of life. Finally, all the reviewed studies are cross-sectional and have not yet addressed predictive validity or instrument responsiveness. Conclusions Valid measures tapping into aspects of diabetes-related adolescent-parent partnership are available, but longitudinal studies are needed to determine if the instruments are able to detect clinically significant change (eg, impact on metabolic control, adherence, quality of life). Rather than develop new measures, refinement and further validation of existing instruments is suggested.