Parenting a child with diabetes: The relationship between coparenting and child adjustment.

摘要

Coparenting is a relatively new construct that represents a couple's ability to work together in their parental roles. Previous research involving healthy populations has demonstrated that a poor coparenting alliance is predictive of child maladjustment. Little is known, however, about the role of coparenting among chronic illness populations. Accordingly, the present doctoral thesis explored linkages between coparenting, psychosocial and illness-specific adjustment among children with type I diabetes. Sixty-one mothers, fathers, and children (ages 8-12) who were at least one-year post diabetes diagnosis completed self-report data; of these, 15 families also participated in a videotaped discussion task. Study 1 examined the construct validity of a coparenting measure among a sample of intact couples caring for a child with diabetes and compared couples' coparenting behaviour around general childrearing and diabetes-specific tasks. Study 2 examined relationships among coparenting and children's psychosocial and diabetes-specific adjustment. Study 3 was exploratory in nature and focused on highlighting key themes that emerged from observations of family discussions around a childrearing and diabetes problem issue. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis provided strong support for the three-factor structure of the Coparenting Questionnaire and Diabetes-Specific Coparenting Questionnaire (DCQ). The overall level of coparenting conflict for both parents was significantly higher around general child management issues as compared to diabetes-specific issues. Replicating previous findings with healthy populations, parents' higher ratings of coparenting conflict around general childrearing tasks were significantly related to more internalizing and externalizing child behaviour problems. Couples' coparenting conflict around diabetes-specific tasks was also linked to poorer diabetes regimen adherence. Additionally, fathers' coparenting conflict (as reported by mothers) was related to children's reports of diabetes-specific quality of life. Coparenting conflict was not, however, related to glycemic control. Mothers' coparenting conflict (as reported by fathers) made a unique contribution to the prediction of externalizing and internalizing problems in children and was a stronger predictor of internalizing problems than poor parenting practices alone. Future research should more fully examine pathways linking marital functioning, coparenting, parenting practices and child adjustment within a larger chronic illness population of children with type I diabetes.;Keywords. coparenting, type I diabetes, children, psychosocial adjustment, diabetes-specific adjustment.