Charting a path to health: The empowering influence of self-efficacy for the self-management of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children and adolescents requires a lifelong commitment to disease control, which involves insulin treatment and constant blood glucose monitoring. Framed by Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory, we focused on analysing the impact of domain-specific self-efficacy for T1D control in children and adolescents and its relationship with different indicators of glycaemic control over time. The study included 205 participants (56.1% male), including 51.7% children and 48.3% adolescents aged 6–18 (M = 13.27, SD = 3.66) years in four longitudinal phases (6 months between phases). The results revealed that higher self-efficacy predicted better health outcomes, with more time spent actively monitoring glucose and more time in the target range. The positive effect of self-efficacy was observed to be maintained over time. This study underscores the importance of taking into account the developmental timing in the onset of T1D. There was a significant relationship between self-efficacy and glucose indicators in adolescents. Although their glucose indicators were worse, self-efficacy became more relevant as they moved from parental management to the self-management of T1D. Implications of the results show the positive effect of self-efficacy on health per glucose indicators, thus suggesting interventions that promote self-efficacy in this population.