Conflicts between young adolescents with type I diabetes and their parents.
OBJECTIVE
The purposes were to describe sources of parent-adolescent conflict in families of young adolescents with type I diabetes and to determine if the sources of conflict were similar to those in a comparable nondistressed group from an earlier study.


METHODS
A descriptive study of 161 adolescents with type I diabetes and their parents examined conflict using the Issues Checklist.


RESULTS
Adolescents with type I diabetes and their families were similar to a non-distressed population in their ranking of quantity, intensity, and frequency by intensity scores. Issues generating the highest frequency of discussion were comparable to those reported in the nondistressed group, with the exception of topics regarding what time to have meals and to watch television. Intensity of discussion was also comparable, with the exception of topics regarding getting up in the morning and bothering the parents. Adolescent report of conflict with the mother was significantly lower overall for the adolescents with type I diabetes.


CONCLUSIONS
Conflict is expected between young adolescents and parents, and having type I diabetes does not heighten conflict with parents with respect to general adolescent issues. Understanding this principle should help healthcare workers recognize usual adolescent-parent conflict and use similar approaches to address these conflicts as are used with nondistressed families.
Viikinsalo
Michele K
MK
University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. mkv@uab.edu
Crawford
Derry M
DM
Kimbrel
Heather
H
Long
Amy E
AE
Dashiff
Carol
C
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires