Family support, coping strategies, and depressive symptoms among mothers of children with diabetes.

This study tested an integrative cross-sectional model of the roles of family support and maternal coping strategies in predicting reduced depressive symptomatology among 52 mothers of children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The authors tested their predictive framework in a structural equation model using LISREL analyses (K. G. Joreskog & D. Sorbom, 1989). The predictive model provided a good fit to the data. Family support was significantly related to percentage approach coping, and percentage approach coping was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Thus, as predicted, family support showed an indirect relationship to mothers' depressive symptoms mediated by maternal percentage approach coping. More broadly, the study contributes to an emerging interest in bridging the literatures in family psychology and pediatric health psychology.