Predictors of mood, diabetes-specific and COVID-19-specific experiences among parents of early school-age children with type 1 diabetes during initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: The current study explored pre-pandemic sociodemographics, medical characteristics, social/family support, and mood symptoms, and current COVID-19 experiences as predictors of mood, positive/negative diabetes-specific experiences, and COVID-19-specific distress among parents of children with type 1 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that parents from marginalized backgrounds, youth with higher pre-pandemic A1c and no CGM use, parents with lower pre-pandemic social/family support and more pre-pandemic mood/anxiety symptoms, and those with more negative COVID-19 experiences would have more depressive symptoms, fewer positive and more negative diabetes-specific experiences, and more COVID-19-specific distress during the initial months of the pandemic.

Research Design And Methods: Participants were parents of early school-age children with type 1 diabetes (n = 100; 65% non-Hispanic, white, 92% mothers, 75% married; M  = 6.74 ± 1.59 years) who had completed a behavioral intervention trial ≥6 months ago and were re-contacted in June/July 2020 to report on their COVID-19 pandemic experiences and parent psychosocial outcomes. Pre-pandemic parent mood/anxiety symptoms, family/social support, and children's medical characteristics (CGM use; M  = 8.17% ± 1.40%) were assessed M = 1.45 ± 0.59 years prior.

Results: More pre-pandemic social support predicted fewer depressive symptoms, more positive diabetes-specific experiences, and less COVID-19-specific distress during the pandemic. More pre-pandemic depressive symptoms predicted more depressive symptoms during the pandemic. More life disruptions due to the pandemic were associated with more negative diabetes-specific experiences and more COVID-19-specific distress. Parents of color had more negative diabetes-specific experiences.

Conclusions: Social support may be particularly important to assess and address through intervention. Pediatric diabetes care providers should monitor parent experiences in relation to children's diabetes management. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02527525.