The role of social media on psychological wellbeing from the perspectives of young people with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

This study explores the perceived influence of social media on psychological wellbeing in young people living with type 1 diabetes. Young people aged 13–20 years (N = 19) with type 1 diabetes and caregivers (diabetes healthcare providers and parents) (N = 8) took part in an online focus group or interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Participants reflected on social media’s capacity to facilitate accessible peer learning and emotional support. Themes for young people centred on the emotional demand of perceiving diabetes products/diets, stigma, and ‘filtered’ peer profiles. Caregiver themes centred on the accuracy and trustworthiness of diabetes content. Caregivers perceive that young people find it difficult to be open about their condition online. Young people with type 1 diabetes reflected on how social media enables them to control their experience. Findings reflect the paradoxical nature of social media as a diabetes support aid, and practical implications of this are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Type 1 diabetes
• adolescence
• social media
• mental health
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Youth Advisory Panel who contributed significantly to the design, conduct, and analysis of this research. We would also like to express our sincerest gratitude towards the young people with type 1 diabetes, Diabetes health care providers, and parents of young people with type 1 diabetes who took the time to participant in this research. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Emerging Minds (UKRI) who funded this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The minimum dataset for this research is provided as a supplementary resource (see S2 coding tree with analytic codes and supplementary quotes).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2298083

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by UKRI, through the Emerging Minds seed fund grant call (grant number not available).