Regitze Saurbrey Pals defends her PhD thesis

Regitze Saurbrey Pals

Title

‘Like walking a tightrope: Meanings and practices of care and support among pre-teens with type 1 diabetes and their families’.

Time and place

Monday, 6 September 2021 at 2 pm.

The defence will take place at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Niels Steensens Vej 6, 2820 Gentofte, building NSK.

The defence will also be available on Zoom.

Click here to participate.

Passcode: 682647.

Assessment committee

  • Associate Professor and Deputy Head Maria Kristiansen, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen (chairperson)

  • Professor Tine Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark

  • Professor Bernie Carter, Nursing & Midwifery Education, Edge Hill University

Supervisors

  • Associate Professor Pernille Hviid, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen

  • Professor Timothy Skinner, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Department of Rural Health, La Trobe University and The Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes

  • Senior Researcher and Team Leader Dan Grabowski, Health Promotion Research, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen

Abstract

This thesis sets out to explore meanings and practices surrounding diabetes care and support among pre-teens (9-12 years) with type 1 diabetes and their families. The thesis draws on an interactionist framework and provides an empirically oriented insight into the different ways in which diabetes is practised and negotiated in the everyday lives of pre-teens and their families. The empirical material consists of a systematic literature review and a qualitative explorative study that combines observations, semi-structured interviews with pre-teens and interactive workshops with pre-teens, parents and siblings. The thesis illustrates that diabetes care and support involved numerous tensions that were difficult to navigate for pre-teens and their families. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates that much of the intervention literature has problematized these tensions rather than approaching them as a part of living with type 1 diabetes. Thus, the findings of the thesis give rise to reconsider the goals and strategies of diabetes interventions among pre-teens with type 1 diabetes and their families.