The lived experience of young adults emotionally labouring with type 1 diabetes: Findings of an interpretive phenomenological study

Background: Type 1 diabetes is a life-long metabolic illness. Typically diagnosed in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, this diagnosis is often associated with increased psychological vulnerability. Diabetes distress is associated with the daily demands of managing complicated medication and dietary regimes that are emotionally, psychologically, and physically taxing. Emotional labour may be required to manage or negotiate the demands of diabetes distress. Emotional labour is the process of managing feelings and expressions that come with fulfilling the emotional demands of necessary tasks or roles. However, the meaning of emotional labour has not been explored for young people living with Type 1 diabetes. Methods: Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, we conducted this study to explore the lived experience of emotional labour for young adults living with Type 1 diabetes in adulthood. Results: Themes were identified that constituted sources of emotional labour inherent to participants’ experiences of diabetes management. The over-expenditure of emotional labour suggests profound implications for mental health outcomes and diabetes distress levels, and participant experiences revealed institutionally imbedded ableism that elicited further expenditure of emotional labour. Conclusion: The findings suggest that reconsideration of educational frameworks and praxis within diabetes healthcare may alleviate emotional labour and diabetes distress.