TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between emotional self-awareness, emotion regulation, and diabetes distress among Italian and Dutch adults with type 1 diabetes
AU - Bassi, Giulia
AU - Embaye, Jiska
AU - de Wit, Maartje
AU - Snoek, Frank J.
AU - Salcuni, Silvia
N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2023 Bassi, Embaye, de Wit, Snoek and Salcuni.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Objective: Evidence suggests that many adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience clinically relevant levels of diabetes distress, indicating coping difficulties. Studies have primarily focused on emotion regulation as a possible construct to be addressed in psychological interventions to alleviate diabetes distress. This study extends the literature by investigating the cross-sectional association between emotion regulation, diabetes distress and the construct of emotional self-awareness as an additional variable to be considered in potentially reducing diabetes distress. Methods: Via an online survey, data was collected on emotional self-awareness dimensions (attention to feelings, clarity of feelings), emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, mood repair) and diabetes distress, along with self-reported clinical and sociodemographic information. Multiple linear regression with stepwise backward method was used to examine associations, controlling for country. Results: N = 262 Italian and Dutch adults with T1D (80.5% women, M = 38.12 years, SD = 12.14) participated. Clarity of feelings was significantly negatively associated with diabetes distress, resulting in a medium effect size (β = −0.22, p < 0.001). Likewise, mood repair was negatively related to diabetes distress, showing a small effect size (β = −0.26, p < 0.001). Conclusion: These findings shed light on the importance of a dimension of emotional self-awareness, namely clarity of feelings. This represents the ability to identify one’s emotional states and discriminate between them. Thus, it should be considered in psychological interventions, such as mentalization-based treatment, that might contribute to alleviating T1D-related distress.
AB - Objective: Evidence suggests that many adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience clinically relevant levels of diabetes distress, indicating coping difficulties. Studies have primarily focused on emotion regulation as a possible construct to be addressed in psychological interventions to alleviate diabetes distress. This study extends the literature by investigating the cross-sectional association between emotion regulation, diabetes distress and the construct of emotional self-awareness as an additional variable to be considered in potentially reducing diabetes distress. Methods: Via an online survey, data was collected on emotional self-awareness dimensions (attention to feelings, clarity of feelings), emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, mood repair) and diabetes distress, along with self-reported clinical and sociodemographic information. Multiple linear regression with stepwise backward method was used to examine associations, controlling for country. Results: N = 262 Italian and Dutch adults with T1D (80.5% women, M = 38.12 years, SD = 12.14) participated. Clarity of feelings was significantly negatively associated with diabetes distress, resulting in a medium effect size (β = −0.22, p < 0.001). Likewise, mood repair was negatively related to diabetes distress, showing a small effect size (β = −0.26, p < 0.001). Conclusion: These findings shed light on the importance of a dimension of emotional self-awareness, namely clarity of feelings. This represents the ability to identify one’s emotional states and discriminate between them. Thus, it should be considered in psychological interventions, such as mentalization-based treatment, that might contribute to alleviating T1D-related distress.
KW - adults
KW - cross-sectional study
KW - diabetes distress
KW - emotion regulation
KW - emotional self-awareness
KW - type 1 diabetes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178895180&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1288550
DO - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1288550
M3 - Article
C2 - 38078273
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 14
JO - Frontiers in psychology
JF - Frontiers in psychology
M1 - 1288550
ER -