March 31, 2011 GUEST BLOG POST by Ryan Clark
Recently, I checked into research about how parents talk to their children with adolescent diabetes. I found this to be very interesting because adolescent diabetes is on the rise due to childhood obesity and unhealthy eating habits. According to an article in the Journal of Pediatric Health, there are 5 themes that are revealed in communication between parents and adolescence about diabetes. These themes are fear, frustration, trusting, normalizing, and discounting.
Fear was defined as the participant’s expression of their dread of an unpleasant, undesired or regrettable outcome. Frustration was defined as an expression of annoyance or anger that tended to recur around issues of the adolescent’s assumption of responsibility for self-care. Trusting was defined as the parent or child being able to count on the other to meet particular behavioral expectations for diabetes management behaviors. Normalizing statements were those that indicated that the family was trying to view and treat the adolescent’s disease as a normal part of life. Discounting was represented by statements and interchanges that revealed a lack of respect for the adolescent’s opinions or efforts and a failure to include the adolescent in discussions about the issues.
These
themes are very important to think about while communicating with a child not only about diabetes but health care in general. Often, kids are scared and confused with what is going on with the state of their health. Clarification to your child on what exactly is happening to them and how you, as a family, will get through this together is vital. The child should trust that you are there with them throughout the process and being well-rehearsed in any information about your child’s health will certainly help. Creating a certain comfort level for one’s child while going through any medical situation will make the process much smoother. An understanding of what has been talked about in this journal article may help you better prepare. You can find the article at:
Dashiff, C., Ivey, J., Wright, A. (2009) Finding the Balance: Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes and Their Parents. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 23, 10-18.
