Parents’ Empathic Accuracy: Associations With Type 1 Diabetes Management and Familism

Abstract

Objective To (1) test associations between parents’ empathic accuracy for their adolescents’ positive and negative emotions and adolescents’ physical and mental health (HbA1c, diabetes self-care, and depressive symptoms) in a predominantly Latinx sample of adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parents, and (2) explore how familism values were associated with parent empathic accuracy and adolescent physical and mental health in this population. Methods Parents and adolescents engaged in a discussion about a topic of frequent conflict related to the adolescents’ diabetes management. Parents and adolescents subsequently completed a video recall task in which they rated their own and their partner’s emotions once per minute; parents’ empathic accuracy was calculated from an average discrepancy between parent and adolescent ratings of the adolescent’s emotions. Adolescents reported on their depressive symptoms and both parents and adolescents reported on adolescents’ diabetes self-care and their own familism values; HbA1c was obtained from medical records. Results Results from structural equation modeling revealed that parents’ empathic accuracy for adolescents’ negative (but not positive) emotions was uniquely associated with adolescents’ HbA1c, self-care, and depressive symptoms. There was limited evidence that familism was related to parent empathic accuracy or adolescent physical and mental health. Conclusions Promoting parents’ empathic accuracy for adolescents’ negative emotions in the context of type 1 diabetes management may have important implications for adolescents’ mental and physical health.

Mean-level correspondence and moment-to-moment synchrony in adolescent and parent affect: Exploring associations with adolescent age and internalizing and externalizing symptoms

“…These findings indicate that the correspondence in overall affect and affective synchrony that has been documented during interactions between parents and infants and young children (e.g., Bornstein et al, 2021 ; Feldman, 2007 ; Sallquist et al, 2010 ) is also present in early to mid-adolescence. Previous reviews have highlighted the importance of examining affective synchrony in parent–adolescent exchanges (e.g., Lougheed, 2020 ) and the current study is one of the first examples to do so (see also Main et al, 2021 ). Further, the current findings suggest that VMR is a potentially important tool to capture affect in parent–adolescent dyads in real time.…”

“…Preliminary construct validity of this task was supported, as well, considering medium positive associations between parent and adolescent affect and small negative associations between adolescent in-task affect and their own internalizing and externalizing symptoms. VMR has been implemented in studies of adult couples ( Rohrbaugh et al, 2009 ), but this is one of the first studies to provide evidence that parents, and most importantly adolescents, can provide affect ratings on a moment-to-moment basis while viewing a video of themselves (see also Main et al, 2021 ).…”

“…VMR has also been used to understand individual differences in emotion dynamics in adolescents ( Yang et al, 2019 ). To our knowledge, however, this approach has only been used in one study with parent–adolescent dyads (see Main et al, 2021 ).…”

Educational needs of people with type 1 diabetes mellitus and their parents: A cross‐sectional study

“…A study on empathic accuracy, which refers to the accuracy of parents' empathy toward their child's condition, revealed that parents may show poor empathic accuracy for their child's negative emotions and suggested that enhancing parents' empathic accuracy is crucial to promoting mental and physical health of children with T1DM (Main et al, 2022 ). In general, the same educational content is to be used for patients with T1DM and their parents, but identifying the differences in their educational needs would enable the development of tailored education.…”

Comparison of perceived parental empathy between adolescents with leukemia and healthy adolescents: A comparative descriptive study

“…Empathy is one of the most essential resources for parents of children with a chronic disease [ 15 ]. When parents are more attuned to their children's thoughts and feelings, adolescents with chronic diseases demonstrate greater self-care and fewer depressive symptoms [ 15 ].…”