| Abstract |
Type I diabetes is a difficult disease to manage for adolescents and parents. The transition of treatment responsibility from parent to adolescent is affected by many factors like executive functioning. The interactions of these factors are critical to effective diabetes treatment. Understanding the adolescent’s executive functioning may help to optimize treatment adherence to a medical routine. Executive functioning is the deliberate control of one’s thoughts, actions, and emotions. Executive dysfunction theoretically may lead to poor planning, organization, and time-management— which are essential tools needed for proper diabetes care. I investigated the overall relationship between how the parent rates their adolescent’s executive function, who is responsible for primary treatment, and the teen’s glycemic control, a proxy for disease management. We predicted that higher executive functioning would be related to better disease management to diabetes care. We also predicted that higher executive functioning would be related to less parent responsibility for treatment. In the Wildman Pediatric Psychology Lab, we recruit adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parent/caregiver to complete questionnaires that look at different types of stress experienced by both parents and teens, treatment responsibility around diabetes, executive functioning, and treatment adherence. Our preliminary results showed that more executive dysfunction predicted poorer HbA1c levels (F (1, 22) = 4.75, p < .005). With higher executive dysfunction, primary treatment responsibility was held by the parent (F (1, 22) = 14.13, p <.005). Additional data will be added to the analyses by April.
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| Modified Abstract |
Type I diabetes is a complex disease to manage, especially in teens. The transition of treatment responsibility from parent to adolescent is affected by many factors like executive functioning. Understanding a teenager’s executive functioning is an important factor in optimizing adherence to a treatment regimen. Executive functioning is the deliberate control of one’s thoughts, actions, and emotions. We predicted that higher executive functioning would be related to better adherence to diabetes care. We also predicted that higher executive functioning would be related to less parent responsibility for treatment. In the Wildman Lab, we investigated the overall relationship between how the parent rates their child’s executive function, who is responsible for primary treatment, and the teen’s glycemic control. Our preliminary results supported our hypotheses.
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