"Come on, say something, Dad!": Communication and coping in fathers of diabetic adolescents

Abstract

Objective: To investigate fathers' coping and communication behavior in families with a healthy or a diabetic adolescent. Method: Fathers of diabetic adolescents and healthy adolescents (N = 134) were investigated longitudinally with respect to their non-illness-specific coping behavior, their perceptions of family climate, and communicative behavior in solving a joint family task. Data were obtained through questionnaires and content analysis of recordings of verbal communication activity. Results: Based on questionnaire data, few differences were found between diabetic and healthy adolescents' fathers' styles of coping with non-illness-specific family problems over time. However, several significant differences emerged, both with respect to the fathers' perceptions of family climate and to aspects of family communication, as observed by independent raters. The findings revealed the overall low communicative activity and initiative of diabetic adolescents' fathers, despite the diabetic adolescents' frequent efforts to involve their fathers in solving a joint task. Conclusions: Counseling and related support services for families of chronically ill adolescents should endeavor to reinstate or increase the father's involvement in the family, thereby encouraging him to exercise his distinctive parental functions.