The relationship between emotional self-awareness, emotion regulation, and diabetes distress in Italian and Dutch adults with Type 1 Diabetes

Objective: Evidence suggests that many adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience clinically relevant levels of diabetes distress, indicating coping difficulties. Studies have primarily focused on emotion regulation as a possible construct to be addressed in psychological interventions to alleviate diabetes distress. This study extends the literature by investigating the cross-sectional association between emotion regulation, diabetes distress and the construct of emotional self-awareness as an additional variable to be considered in potentially reducing diabetes distress. Methods: Via an online survey, data was collected on emotional self-awareness dimensions (attention to feelings, clarity of feelings), emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, mood repair) and diabetes distress, along with self-reported clinical and sociodemographic information. Multiple linear regression with stepwise backward method was used to examine associations, controllin...