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Diabetes-specific friend support in emerging adults with type 1 diabetes: Does satisfaction with support matter?

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Abstract

Youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) must adhere to a complex treatment regimen to prevent health complications. Friends may provide diabetes-specific support to help youth manage diabetes, but evidence on whether youth benefit from diabetes-specific friend support is inconclusive. The present study first investigated whether satisfaction with friend support was linked to psychological distress and diabetes management. Second, it was investigated whether self-esteem mediated these relations. To this end, 324 Dutch-speaking emerging adults (17–28 years) with T1D completed questionnaires on diabetes-specific friend support, self-esteem, diabetes-specific distress, depressive symptoms, and self-care. HbA1c values were obtained from patients’ physicians. Receiving diabetes-specific support from friends was associated with more diabetes-specific distress, but not for youth who were satisfied with the received support. Diabetes-specific friend support was not associated with other outcomes. Self-esteem did not mediate these relations. These results suggest that associations between diabetes-specific friend support and diabetes management are limited and that support satisfaction should be taken into consideration when examining the role of friend support for youth with T1D.

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Notes

  1. In the registered analysis plan we opted for listwise deletion to handle missing data in the preliminary analyses, but changed this to multiple imputation for the actual paper. This did not affect the inclusion of control variables in the structural equation models.

  2. A small addendum was made to the registered analysis plan in that the variances and covariances of exogenous variables were estimated freely, rather than the ‘lavaan’ default to fix them at their sample values. This appeared necessary for estimating mediation and moderation effects within the SEM framework and did not alter the path coefficients.

  3. In the reduced sample (excluding 17 year olds), there also was a significant interaction effect between support satisfaction and frequency in predicting diabetes-specific distress (β = -.102, p = .003). In addition, support satisfaction negatively predicted HbA1c (β = -.187, p = .040) and depressive symptoms (β = -.142, p = .048).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, box 3717, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Koen Raymaekers, Sofie Prikken, Philip Moons, Eva Goossens & Koen Luyckx

  2. Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Flanders, Belgium

    Koen Raymaekers, Sofie Prikken & Eva Goossens

  3. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

    Vicki S. Helgeson

  4. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Janne Vanhalst

  5. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Philip Moons

  6. Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Philip Moons

  7. Center for Research and Innovation in Care (CRIC), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Eva Goossens

  8. The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

    Cynthia A. Berg

  9. UNIBS, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Koen Luyckx

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  1. Koen Raymaekers
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A total of 1450 eligible participants were mailed a package including a questionnaire bundle and informed consent forms with detailed information about the study’s purpose and content. Parents provided consent for youth below 18 years. The Medical Ethics Committee and Social and Societal Ethics Committee of KU Leuven provided ethical approval (file number: S57299).

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Raymaekers, K., Helgeson, V.S., Prikken, S. et al. Diabetes-specific friend support in emerging adults with type 1 diabetes: Does satisfaction with support matter?. J Behav Med 44, 402–411 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-021-00211-3

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