Pre-adolescent children's experiences of receiving diabetes-related support from friends and peers: a qualitative study
Pre-adolescent children's experiences of receiving diabetes-related support from friends and peers: a qualitative study
Background
While pre‐adolescent children with type 1 diabetes receive most support from their parents/caregivers, others also contribute to their care. This study explored pre‐adolescent children's experiences of receiving diabetes‐related support from friends and peers. The objective was to identify how children could be better supported by their friends and peers to undertake diabetes self‐management.
Methods
In‐depth interviews with 24 children (aged 9‐12 years) with type 1 diabetes. Data were analysed using an inductive, thematic approach.
Results
Children gave mixed accounts of their experiences of speaking to their school/class about diabetes with some indicating that this had resulted in unwanted attention. Most individuals reported that other children had a limited understanding of diabetes and sometimes acted in insensitive ways or said things they found upsetting. Virtually all children described having a small number of close friends who were interested in learning about diabetes and provided them with support. These friends provided support in three overlapping ways, as “monitors and prompters,” “helpers” and “normalizers.” While some children described benefiting from meeting peers with type 1 diabetes, most indicated that they would prefer to develop friendships based on shared interests rather than a common disease status.
Discussion and conclusions
Friends and peers provide several kinds of support to pre‐adolescent children with diabetes. Health professionals could consider ways to assist small friendship groups to undertake monitoring and prompting, helping and normalizing roles. Parents, schools and health professionals could explore ways to normalize self‐management practices to better support children with diabetes in school settings.
Children, Pre-adolescents, Qualitative research, Self-management, Type 1 diabetes
1-8
Rankin, David
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Harden, Jeni
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Barnard, Katharine D.
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Stephen, John
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Kumar, Simita
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Lawton, Julia
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Rankin, David
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Harden, Jeni
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Barnard, Katharine D.
1ade2840-48a4-4bb3-b564-0a058df8297f
Stephen, John
b477bd84-7ab8-4a16-a54e-90755bd7a928
Kumar, Simita
ce7ebac6-31ab-471b-9b02-f7e5c4afcb71
Lawton, Julia
4d9b7231-8c6b-4f5a-894a-52afd4020b59
Rankin, David, Harden, Jeni, Barnard, Katharine D., Stephen, John, Kumar, Simita and Lawton, Julia
(2018)
Pre-adolescent children's experiences of receiving diabetes-related support from friends and peers: a qualitative study.
Health Expectations, .
(doi:10.1111/hex.12802).
Abstract
Background
While pre‐adolescent children with type 1 diabetes receive most support from their parents/caregivers, others also contribute to their care. This study explored pre‐adolescent children's experiences of receiving diabetes‐related support from friends and peers. The objective was to identify how children could be better supported by their friends and peers to undertake diabetes self‐management.
Methods
In‐depth interviews with 24 children (aged 9‐12 years) with type 1 diabetes. Data were analysed using an inductive, thematic approach.
Results
Children gave mixed accounts of their experiences of speaking to their school/class about diabetes with some indicating that this had resulted in unwanted attention. Most individuals reported that other children had a limited understanding of diabetes and sometimes acted in insensitive ways or said things they found upsetting. Virtually all children described having a small number of close friends who were interested in learning about diabetes and provided them with support. These friends provided support in three overlapping ways, as “monitors and prompters,” “helpers” and “normalizers.” While some children described benefiting from meeting peers with type 1 diabetes, most indicated that they would prefer to develop friendships based on shared interests rather than a common disease status.
Discussion and conclusions
Friends and peers provide several kinds of support to pre‐adolescent children with diabetes. Health professionals could consider ways to assist small friendship groups to undertake monitoring and prompting, helping and normalizing roles. Parents, schools and health professionals could explore ways to normalize self‐management practices to better support children with diabetes in school settings.
Text
Rankin_et_al-2018-Health_Expectations
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 13 May 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 July 2018
Keywords:
Children, Pre-adolescents, Qualitative research, Self-management, Type 1 diabetes
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 424744
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/424744
ISSN: 1369-6513
PURE UUID: 25b49b81-6e46-41a0-94e2-544dbb423006
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Date deposited: 05 Oct 2018 11:42
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 21:16
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Contributors
Author:
David Rankin
Author:
Jeni Harden
Author:
Katharine D. Barnard
Author:
John Stephen
Author:
Simita Kumar
Author:
Julia Lawton
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