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Pediatric Parenting Stress and Its Relation to Depressive Symptoms and Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

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Abstract

Parents of young children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) maintain full responsibility for their child’s daily diabetes self-care and thus may be vulnerable to experiencing parenting stress. This study examined several psychological correlates of pediatric parenting stress in parents of young children with T1DM. Parents of 39 young children with T1DM (ages 2–7 years) completed measures of pediatric parenting stress, mealtime behavior problems, depressive symptoms, and fear of hypoglycemia. For parents of young children, higher stress frequency and difficulty were associated with higher parental depressive symptoms and fear. Regression analyses identified that 58% of the variance in stress frequency was associated with parental depressive symptoms. For stress difficulty, 68% of the variance was associated with parental depressive symptoms and fear. Pediatric parenting stress is common in parents of young children with T1DM. Stress and the psychological correlates measured in this study are amenable to intervention and should be regularly assessed in parents of young children with T1DM.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grant K24-DK59973 (to S. W. P.) and grant K23-DK076921 (to S. R. P.) from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. We thank Dr. Ram Menon for his assistance in the design and implementation of this study and the interpretation of its outcomes. We thank Drs. Michael Rapoff, Jennifer Butcher, and Jessica Kichler for their review of an early draft of this manuscript. We thank the families who participated in this study and through their participation help us to advance diabetes research in young children. The data analyzed for this manuscript come from a study which was conducted in part at the University of Michigan/C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Mail Stop 4004, Kansas City, KS, 66160-7330, USA

    Susana R. Patton

  2. Division of Endocrinology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Lawrence M. Dolan

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Laura B. Smith

  4. Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Inas H. Thomas

  5. Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Scott W. Powers

Authors
  1. Susana R. Patton
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  2. Lawrence M. Dolan
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  3. Laura B. Smith
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  4. Inas H. Thomas
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  5. Scott W. Powers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susana R. Patton.

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Patton, S.R., Dolan, L.M., Smith, L.B. et al. Pediatric Parenting Stress and Its Relation to Depressive Symptoms and Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 18, 345–352 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9256-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9256-1

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