Psychological Well-being in Parents of Children with Type 1 Diabetes: The Role of Mindfulness

Childhood diabetes can have a negative psychosocial impact on both the child and the wider family system. In particular, parents of children with type 1 diabetes are known to be at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress. Mindfulness has been defined as a technique to enhance the tendency of being non-judgementally aware of what is going at the current moment and has five facets: Observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging and non-reactivity. Mindfulness has been used in various long-term health conditions to enhance well-being and reduce distress. However, the majority of studies have focused on health conditions in adulthood and have been with European or North American populations. This thesis therefore focuses on the role of mindfulness in the psychological well-being in Kuwaiti parents of children with type 1 diabetes. Specifically, this thesis has four related aims: (i) to translate and adapt the five facet mindfulness questionnaire from English into Arabic, (ii) to quantify the levels of psychological distress in Kuwaiti parents of children with type 1 diabetes, (iii) to examine relationships between mindfulness, illness representations, psychological distress and quality of life, and (iv) to develop a psychological intervention that may help parents cope better with their child’s long-term condition.
In conclusion, the present thesis shows that dispositional mindfulness and illness representations were significantly associated with anxiety, depression, and quality of life in Kuwaiti parents of children with type 1 diabetes. The final study is the first to examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness intervention for parents of children with type 1 diabetes in an Arabic country and it sets a clear justification for conducting further tests of this promising intervention.