Family’s role in the adaption of diabetic adolescents

Abstract

It is a qualitative study whose objective was to investigate how adolescents recognize family’s role in their adaption as diabetics. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview and analyzed according to the content analysis method. It was verifi ed that adolescents recognize that the family helps in their adaptive process, mainly in what concerns emotional, fi nancial and social support, but, on the other hand, that it also harms their living together with the new reality when it overprotects them and controls their actions. The results of this study show the importance of including and supporting the family to make it a cooperative element in the adaption process and adolescents’ living together with the new reality resulting from the changes occurred in their quotidian.