Self- and Dependent-Care Responsibility of Adolescents with IDDM and their Parents

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to describe perceptions of the division of diabetes self- and dependent-care responsibility among young adolescents and their parents in two-parent families and to examine the relationship of these perceptions to metabolic control of diabetes. Respondents were 31 adolescents, aged 12 to 15 years and their parents from two-parent families. Illness-related self-care responsibility of adolescents (adolescent self-care) and parent dependent care were assessed with a modification of the Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire. Metabolic control was assessed by glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at two intervals 2 months apart. There was significant difference between pairs of respondents on perceptions of diabetes responsibility. Individual perspectives were unique enough to retain individual scores rather than combining scores. Adolescents' perceptions that they had less responsibility (r = −43, p = .02) and that their mothers had more responsibility (r = .41, p = .03) were associated with prior poorer metabolic control but not current metabolic control.