READY (REgulating Adherence to Diabetes as Young adults)
As a life-span developmental health psychologist, I examine how adolescents and adults across the life span manage chronic illnesses (e.g., type 1 and type 2 diabetes, cancer) in the context of their family and friend relationships. In our recent developmental model of parent-child coordination (Berg et al., 2017), we explore how a foundation of high-quality parental involvement may facilitate young adults’ self-regulation and use of other relationships (romantic partners, friends, physicians) to facilitate chronic illness management. This model provides an important theoretical bridge between the adolescent and adult development research. My research examines how parents and spouses may facilitate or derail diabetes management during adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adults across the adult lifespan. The focus of much of my research has been on how individuals may benefit from working collaboratively with close relationships (most especially their parents, spouse, or romantic partner) to facilitate the completion of adherence tasks, especially individuals with lower cognitive and EF abilities. We have modeled these family self- and social-regulation processes utilizing dyadic and dynamical system models to capture family processes as they emerge across time (Butner, Berg et al., 2017).