Living with and Caring for a Type I Diabetic Child: Coping and Depression Symptoms in Mothers

Abstract

Voices of mothers living with and caring for their children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) will be explored in this study through the use of photovoice lens and survey. Studies show that parental coping with the stress of diabetes is likely to play an important role in child and family adjustment to the disease. Their coping skill not only influences their psychosocial health and wellbeing but it also affects their children’s psychosocial adjustment and quality of life (QOL). Thus, the paper aims to create a framework on the effect of the coping styles used by mothers of children with T1D to mothers’ psychosocial adjustment to the disease by using a combination of grounded theory, photovoice, and survey research design as methodology. With a 2-year reference period (2016-2018), around 50 mothers with Type 1 Diabetic children from at least three (3) Diabetic Club Organizations within Laguna will serve as the respondents of the study. Ten to 20 of them will be randomly selected to participate in a series of workshops or focus group discussions (FGDs) and photography sessions. Researcher-administered questionnaires will first be distributed to gather data onsocio-demographic characteristics, coping styles, and depression symptoms. The study will adopt the questions from The Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) questionnaire to assess symptoms of depression in mothers; and the Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ) (Connor-Smith, 2000) to determine mothers’ coping styles. A workshop for randomly selected participants will then be conducted to explain to them how photovoice is conducted its specific do’s and dont’s. Photography sessions will be conducted to collect more in-depth data on mothers’ coping styles. Focus group discussions will serve as venue for the mothers to explain the meanings of their respective photographs; emerging patterns from their explanations will be observed. Data from the survey and photovoice sessions will then be analyzed to develop the framework. Key informant interviews (KIIs) with officials from the Provincial Health Office and randomly selected City/Municipal Health Offices will also be done to review existing policies and programs on Type 1 Diabetes in Laguna. These factors contribute significantly to the success of an effort (e.g. future health programs). Furthermore, gaining the support of policy makers is an essential part in strategic program planning (FAO, 2014). Recommendations based on the results of the study could help improve the identified existing policies and programs on Type 1 Diabetes and guide future activities, particularly on coping skills training for mothers to help lessen the impact of T1D on parents and families.