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Show DEE FOUNDATION SCHOLAR 2012-2013 THE ROLE OF INCOME IN DIABETES MANAGEMENT DURING ADOLESCENCE IN INCREASING RISK FOR FAMILY CONFLICT AND PEER CONFORMITY Karen Yu (Cynthia A. Berg) Department of Psychology University of Utah Objective. Existing literature has indicated that lower family income is associated with poorer Type 1 Diabetes management in adolescence (Drew et al., 2011). A possible explanation of the said phenomenon may be that parents in lower income families are less available to provide sensitive parenting (Drew et al., 2011; Martin et al., 1998), possibly leading adolescents to conform to their peers for acceptance and leading to poorer adherence to their diabetes regimen (Drew et al., 2010; Yu et al., 2012). The present study examined whether the relationships between income and diabetes adherence occurred through parental conflict and peer conformity. Methods. One-hundred eighty-three adolescents {M age =14.4, range 12.00-17.24,46.5 % male) completed questionnaires. To assess family conflict w e used the Diabetes Family Conflict Scale (Rubin et al., 1989), which measures the frequency of parent-child conflict over 15 diabetes tasks. To assess friend conformity, we used the Extreme Peer Orientation Scale (EPO). Adherence was assessed via the Self-Care Inventory (LaGreca et al., 1990) and HbA1 c was collected from medical records. Results. Separate multiple regressions were conducted to examine whether family income, peer conformity, and parental conflict and acceptance predicted adherence level and metabolic control (HbA1 c). W h e n predicting adherence, peer conformity was a significant predictor (13= -.27, p< .01, f=-3.64). W h e n predicting HbA1 c, family income was a significant predictor ((3= -.01, p< .01, f=-3.99). Diabetes-related conflicts with mother was significant when predicting both adherence (R= -.21, p< .01, f=-2.89) and HbA1 c (11= -.25, p< .01, f=3.25). Mother's acceptance was not significant for either of the measures {ps > .15). Discussion. Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes from low-income families often have poorer metabolic control as well as regimen adherence. O n e possible explanation of this phenomenon would be that these adolescents are exposed to greater diabetes-related family conflicts (e.g. elevated blood glucose level due to fight-and-flight responses) and are more willing to sacrifice their diabetes management to gain acceptance from their peers. These results point to the value of interventions targeted toward supporting families so that family conflict is reduced and parents can monitor their adolescents in a way that supports positive rather than negative friend relationships around diabetes management. Karen Yu Cynthia A. Berg 3/ |