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Parental stress from type 1 diabetes care fluctuates over 1 year
Stress from caring for young children with type 1 diabetes increases in fathers and decreases in mothers over a 1-year period, according to findings published in Diabetic Medicine.
Esther Hartman, PhD, of the Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases, department of medical and clinical psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated questionnaire responses from 112 parents (56 mothers) of young children (aged 0 to 7 years; mean age, 5 years; 52% boys) with type 1 diabetes (82% receiving pump therapy) to determine the levels of pediatric parenting stress and the variation of stress over time.
At baseline, participants completed the 42-item Pediatric Inventory for Parents to evaluate pediatric parenting stress on four subscales, including communication (with the medical team, partner or child), emotional distress (eg, quality of sleep, effect on mood), medical care (eg, treatment demand) and role functioning (eg, being able to go to work); scores were added to determine a total frequency and total difficulty stress score. Participants used a 5-point Likert scale to describe the frequency of occurrence and perceived difficulty of each subscale. Overall, 79% of mothers and 55% of fathers completed the questionnaire again 1 year later, and researchers used the responses to determine variations in stress over time.
At the first measurement, mothers had higher scores compared with fathers for communication frequency (20.2 vs. 17.7; P = .001), communication difficulty (16.4 vs. 14.1; P < .001), emotional distress frequency (32.5 vs. 28.4; P < .001), emotional distress difficulty (34.1 vs. 29.6; P = .004), medical care frequency (21.3 vs. 18.4; P < .001), total frequency (93 vs. 83; P < .001) and total difficulty (81.4 vs. 71.4; P = .003).
At the second measurement, men reported increasing stress over time for communication frequency, communication difficulty, emotional distress difficulty, medical care difficulty, role functioning frequency, role functioning difficulty, total frequency and total difficulty. However, women reported decreasing stress over time on all subscales for frequency and difficulty.
“This study indicates that mothers initially report higher level of pediatric parenting stress than fathers, but that the burden of care increases in fathers and decreases in mothers over the course of a year, suggesting that fathers start assuming more responsibility for the care of their children,” the researchers wrote. “We recommend that health care providers should collect information about stress levels in both parents periodically, because fathers and mothers seem to perceive pediatric parenting stress differently. This would enable health care providers to determine whether one or both parents are in need of support not only to reduce pediatric parenting stress, but also to improve the functioning of the family as a whole.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.