Evaluation of emotional regulation skills, quality of life and coping with stress in children with diabetes mellitus type 1

Aim: In this study, we aimed to determine styles of coping with stress, emotion regulation skills, eating attitudes and quality of life in children with DM type 1 and comparison of findings with healthy children. In addition, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between this findings and the presence of psychopathology, emotion regulation skills and styles of coping with stress in mothers of children with diabetes. Method: The study included 70 diabetic children and their mothers, and 70 healthy children and their mothers with similar sociodemographic characteristics. During the evaluation, "Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children/Kiddie-SADS-Lifetime Version", the Children's Depression Inventory, the Screen for Children Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Eating Attitudes Test(EAT), the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and Ways of Coping Inventory (COPE) were applied to all children. In addition, DERS, COPE, PedsQL-parent form, the Symptom Check List 90-R, Beck depression and Beck anxiety scales were applied to all mothers who participated in the study. Results: It was found significantly more problems in diabetic group in the DERS-impulse subscale, COPE-helplessness subgroup, PedsQL-physical subgroup, EAT, SCARED- panic somatic, common anxiety, separation anxiety and total anxiety scores experienced than the control group. In the scales applied to mothers of diabetic children, significantly higher scores were found in the DERS-nonacceptance subscale, deficits in emotional clarity subscale and impulse subscale, COPE-helplessness subgroup, and Beck Depression Scale, than mothers of non-diabetic children. However, in the entire sample, there were findings that the children were modeling their mothers in emotion regulation, coping with stress and anxiety, however, this relationship was weaker for the diabetic children group. Conclusions:Type 1 DM creates problems in patients' and mothers' emotional regulation skills and stress coping styles; it also negatively affects the quality of life and eating attitudes of children with diabetes. In addition, while developing emotion regulation and coping skills, it prevents children from modeling their mothers. Giving psychiatric support during the treatment of diabetes will increase the effect of the treatment and the quality of life of patients, and will facilitate adaptation to the disease. Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus Type 1, Emotion Regulation, Quality of Life, Coping with Stress, Eating Attitudes