Providing Workshops for Families with Type 1 Diabetes

Freeborn, Donna

Thursday, 25 July 2013: 8:30 AM

Donna Freeborn, PhD, FNP, CNM¹
Susanne Olsen Roper, PhD²
Tina Dyches, PhD³
Barbara L. Mandleco, PhD, RN¹
(1)College of Nursing, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
(2)School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
(3)Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

Learning Objective 1: identify effective activities for workshops for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their siblings.

Learning Objective 2: identify appropriate topics for support groups for parents of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Purpose: We examined perceptions of depression and hardiness in parents raising a child with disabilities (CWD) or a typically developing child to determine if (a) differences exist in variables according to parent gender and type of disability, and (b) relationships exist between variables.

Methods: 166 pairs of parents raising children with autism, Down syndrome, multiple disabilities, other disabilities, or typically developing children completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale and the Family Hardiness Index. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, correlations, and regressions were calculated.

Results: ANOVAs for depression found significant differences by disability (F=2.598, p=.038) and parent gender (F=10.297, p=.002), but no significant disability x gender interaction. Parents of children with autism had significantly higher levels of depression than parents of typically developing children. Mothers had higher levels of depression than fathers. There were no significant differences in hardiness by parent gender. There was a significant difference by disability (F=3.722, p=.006), but no significant disability x gender interaction. Parents of typically developing children had significantly higher levels of hardiness than parents of children with autism and parents of children with other disabilities. Parents of children with other disabilities had significantly higher levels of hardiness than parents of children with autism. Hardiness and depression were negatively correlated for both mothers and fathers. After controlling for type of disability, number of children in the family, income, caregiver burden, and age and gender of the CWD, higher levels of hardiness continued to predict lower depression for mothers and fathers.

Conclusions: Nurses should provide interventions assisting parents, especially mothers, of children with autism cope with depression. It is also critical to provide interventions to increase hardiness in parents raising children with autism or other disabilities. Helping parents raising a CWD increase in hardiness may also decrease their depression.

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