Cynthia Berg
· CO-DIRECTORUniversity of Utah · Family and Consumer Studies
Active 1982–2026
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About
Cynthia Berg, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah, with expertise in developmental and health psychology. Her research examines how adolescents and adults across the lifespan manage chronic illnesses such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes and cancer within the context of their family and social relationships. She has developed a developmental model of parent-child coordination that explores how high-quality parental involvement can facilitate self-regulation and the use of other relationships, including romantic partners and physicians, to support chronic illness management. Her work focuses on how family members, especially parents and spouses, can either facilitate or hinder diabetes management during adolescence, emerging adulthood, and across the adult lifespan. Her research utilizes dyadic and dynamical system models to understand family processes as they emerge over time.
Research topics
- Medicine
- Psychology
- Gerontology
- Clinical psychology
- Endocrinology
- Nursing
- Computer Science
- Physical therapy
- Internal medicine
- Family medicine
Selected publications
Annals of Behavioral Medicine · 2020 · 46 citations
BACKGROUND: Family and friends have both helpful and harmful effects on adults' diabetes self-management. Family-focused Add-on to Motivate Self-care (FAMS) is a mobile phone-delivered intervention designed to improve family/friend involvement, self-efficacy, and self-care via monthly phone coaching, texts tailored to goals, and the option to invite a support person to receive texts. PURPOSE: We sought to evaluate how FAMS was received by a diverse group of adults with Type 2 diabetes and if FAM…
JMIR Diabetes · 2022 · 22 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingBACKGROUND: Family members or friends (care partners [CPs]) of older adults with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) regularly become part of the diabetes care team, but they often lack knowledge about how to become involved to prevent hypo- and hyperglycemia. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) allows a person with diabetes to see their glucose levels continuously and to receive predictive alerts. A smartphone data-sharing app called the Follow app allows the person with diabetes to share continuous glucose…
Age differences in reactivity to daily general and Type 1 diabetes stressors.
Psychology and Aging · 2020 · 12 citations
1st authorCorrespondingOlder adults often report less exposure to and less affective reactions to daily stressors. However, older adults with a chronic illness such as Type 1 diabetes may experience more daily stressors due to the complications of diabetes and may be more affected by those stressors. The study examined (a) age differences in reported exposure to general and diabetes stressors, (b) whether daily general and diabetes stressors relate to daily positive and negative affect, self-care, and blood glucose, a…
Annals of Behavioral Medicine · 2023-05-10 · 9 citations
articleOpen accessBACKGROUND: Executive functioning (EF) predicts better Type 1 diabetes (T1D) management in the high-risk years after high school, but the daily self-regulation processes involved are unclear. PURPOSE: To examine whether EF is associated with daily self-regulation that minimizes one's exposure or buffers adverse reactions to daily diabetes problems, and to determine whether these patterns become stronger during the transition out of high school. METHODS: A measurement burst design with convenienc…
Continuous glucose monitoring with data sharing in older adults: A qualitative study
Journal of Clinical Nursing · 2023-06-22 · 7 citations
articleOpen accessAIMS: This study examined the perceptions of the SHARE plus intervention and its effects on communication, collaboration, and involvement in day-to-day diabetes management in older adults with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their care partners. BACKGROUND: The SHARE plus intervention includes continuous glucose monitoring with a data sharing app that allows care partners to view glucose data on a smartphone and receive alerts. People with T1D and their care partners are educated about communication s…
Recent grants
A self-regulation approach to diabetes adherence into emerging adulthood
NIH · $2.7M · 2011–2017
NIH · $1.1M · 1998
Self-regulation and collaborative coping with Type 1 Diabetes over the life span
NIH · $3.9M · 2014–2019
Frequent coauthors
- 143 shared
Deborah J. Wiebe
University of California, Merced
- 111 shared
Karen L. Fingerman
The University of Texas at Austin
- 79 shared
Jonathan Butner
University of Utah
- 66 shared
Bob G. Knight
University of Southern Queensland
- 60 shared
Brian Carpenter
Washington University in St. Louis
- 60 shared
Robert Hudson
- 60 shared
Judy Howe
National Institute on Aging
- 60 shared
Amy Fiske
West Virginia University
Labs
Not provided
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