Testing the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL) in Families with Type I Diabetes

ABSTRACT

The theory of resilience and relational load was tested with 60 couples and their adolescent children (ages 11–18) with type I diabetes (T1D). The couples participated in a stress-inducing conversation task in their home, followed by a random assignment to a two-week intervention designed to increase their relationship maintenance. Before the intervention, stronger communal orientation predicted greater maintenance for husbands and wives, but maintenance only reduced T1D stress for wives. The wives’ and adolescents’ T1D stress were also correlated, but the husbands’ T1D stress was not significantly associated with either of them. Better maintenance was associated with less conflict during couples’ conversations. Maintenance was also directly associated with less perceived and physiological stress (cortisol) from the conversation. Finally, wives in the intervention reported the most thriving, communal orientation and the least loneliness. The intervention also reduced adolescents’ general life stress, but it did not influence their T1D stress or thriving.

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by the University of Iowa. The researchers would like to thank the physicians, nurses, and research assistants from the University of Iowa for their help with this study, as well as the families who participated in the study.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Tamara Afifi is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California Santa Barbara. Douglas Granger is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Social Behavior, Pediatrics, and Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. In the interest of full disclosure Douglas Granger is founder and Chief Scientific and Strategy Advisor at Salimetrics LLC and Salivabio LLC. The nature of these relationships is managed by the policies of the committees on conflict of interest at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of California at Irvine. Anne Ersig is a nurse-scholar at the American Family Children’s Hospital in Wisconsin-Madison. Eva Tsalikian is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Director of the diabetes center. Sharde Davis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Ariana Shahnazi, Michelle Acevedo Callejas, and Audrey Scranton are doctoral candidates in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Kathryn Harrison is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Iowa.