A warm watchful eye: parental emotional support and monitoring in multisystem therapy for youth with diabetes

A WARM WATCHFUL EYE: PARENTAL EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANDMONITORING IN MULTISYSTEM THERAPY FOR YOUTH WITH DIABETESbyDANA MAYAUGUST 2012Advisor:Dr. Annmarie CanoMajor:Clinical PsychologyDegree:Master of ArtsThe purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which changes inparenting behaviors, in particular monitoring diabetes care completion and providingemotional support to the youth, improve health care status within participants in aMultisystemic psychotherapeutic intervention (MST). RM-ANOVAs were used todetermine the relationship of parental involvement in the treatment and telephonesupport group over time. Change score correlations were used to examine changes inparental involvement relationship to changes in diabetes care behaviors. Allparticipants in the study increased in parental monitoring over time, with no differencesbetween the MST group and the telephone support group. Changes in types of parentalmonitoring were related to changes in adherence. Emotional support showed nochange and was not related to diabetes outcomes. This research suggests parentalinvolvement alone does not change diabetes behaviors but may be an importantcontributor and should be studied further to understand how to assist youth withdiabetes.