Commentary: Social drivers of health within the Pediatric Self-Management Model

The Pediatric Self-Management Model is a comprehensive conceptual model that communicates the individual, family, community, and healthcare system factors that influence self-management behaviors (Modi et al., 2012). Self-management is defined as “the interaction of health behaviors and related processes that patients and families engage in to care for a chronic condition” (Modi et al., 2012). Self-management behaviors are daily, complex, and multi-factorial. Beyond the four core domains noted (i.e., individual, family, community, and healthcare system), the model highlights both modifiable and non-modifiable contextual variables that either promote or detract from executing self-management behaviors and key processes that link these contextual factors to self-management behaviors. The Pediatric Self-Management Model is highly cited (i.e., over 650 times since 2012) and has been applied and tested in several pediatric chronic conditions (e.g., type 1 diabetes, epilepsy, sickle cell disease, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and transplantation). For example, Kichler and colleagues (2012) applied the Pediatric Self-Management Model to examine self-management behaviors (i.e., division of responsibility for self-management between child and caregiver), contextual factors (e.g., child age, executive functioning skills, caregiver support), and processes (e.g., health beliefs, self-efficacy) that impact health outcomes for adolescent youth with type 1 diabetes.