We congratulate Dr Virginia Hagger [1], 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 [2] (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 [3], 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 [4] (2018)
Virginia’s PhD drew upon two datasets: 1) the Diabetes MILES Youth – Australia Study [5], 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) [6] 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 [7], Dr Christel Hendrieckx [8] and Prof John Toumbourou [9] (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 [10] as manager of diabetes education services and, most recently, in Deakin’s School of Nursing and Midwifery [11], co-ordinating the Graduate Certificate of Diabetes Education [12].
Congratulations Dr Virginia Hagger!
1 The NDSS is an initiative of the Australian Government administered with the assistance of Diabetes Australia