We congratulate Dr Virginia Hagger, who was awarded her PhD in Psychology at a graduation ceremony at Deakin University’s Geelong Waterfront campus on Wednesday 13 February.
Virginia’s thesis was entitled: “Diabetes distress among adolescents with type 1 diabetes”. It included a number of studies focused on young people with diabetes, which have been published in a series of peer-reviewed papers:
- Diabetes distress among adolescents with type 1 diabetes: a systematic review (2016)
- Cut-points for identifying clinically significant diabetes distress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes using the PAID-Teen: results from Diabetes MILES Youth – Australia, published in Diabetes Care, for which Virginia won a Deakin University School of Psychology Higher Degree by Research Award (2017)
- Diabetes distress is more strongly associated with HbA1c than depressive symptoms in adolescents with type 1 diabetes: Results from Diabetes MILES Youth-Australia (2018)
Virginia’s PhD drew upon two datasets: 1) the Diabetes MILES Youth – Australia Study, a national survey of adolescents living with diabetes and their parents (funded by Diabetes Australia / National Diabetes Services Scheme1); 2) the Teens Empowered to Actively Manage Type 1 diabetes (TEAM T1) project, a structured, self-management education program for adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parents, which Virginia led with funding from the Department of Health and Ageing.
Virginia’s PhD supervision team included Jane Speight, Dr Christel Hendrieckx and Prof John Toumbourou (Deakin University: School of Psychology).
We also acknowledge that Virginia enrolled for her PhD in 2012 and conducted it part-time in addition to her paid employment, first with Diabetes Victoria as manager of diabetes education services and, most recently, in Deakin’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, co-ordinating the Graduate Certificate of Diabetes Education.
Congratulations Dr Virginia Hagger!
1 The NDSS is an initiative of the Australian Government administered with the assistance of Diabetes Australia
