| The objective of this study was to examine how emotional processing (i.e., understanding, acknowledging, and accepting emotions) moderated self-control (i.e., regulation of thoughts, emotion, and behavior) in explaining diabetes-specific self-regulation and metabolic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Strong emotional processing was expected to confer regulatory benefit and promote adaptive outcomes, especially so for adolescents with poor self-control. General self-control capacity, and particularly self-control combined with emotional processing, may also underlie the relation of diabetes-specific management self-competence, negative affect, and adherence, and metabolic control. Self-report measures of self-control, emotional processing, diabetes management self-competence, diabetes-specific negative affect, adherence, and measured HbA1c were obtained from 137 adolescents with type 1 diabetes (M age = 13.48 years). Emotional processing significantly moderated the relation of self-control and metabolic control. Adolescents with high emotional processing were buffered from the effects of poor self-control. Adolescents with low self-control and low emotional processing had the poorest metabolic control. This interaction predicted metabolic control better than diabetes-specific self-regulatory constructs, and mediated the relations between those constructs and metabolic control. These findings suggest the importance of considering strength of emotional processing and self-control in the study of diabetes-specific self-regulation and health outcomes in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. |
