Parental Management of Young Children's Diabetes

Study Summary

Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong metabolic disorder that affects 1 out of every 400-600 American children each year, with many children being diagnosed at younger and younger ages. To achieve proper diabetes control, it is necessary to conform or adhere one's behavior to a physician-prescribed diabetes self-care regimen. As such, parents of children with Type 1 diabetes must be highly involved in managing their child's disease on a daily basis, especially parents of affected children who are very young and more highly dependent upon parental caretaking. As children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at a very young age may be at an increased risk for the development of long-term behavioral and medical complications, more research is needed to understand and treat the leading contributors to diabetes-related parental distress and medical outcomes among this growing subgroup. Recent findings indicate that responsibility for diabetes management falls heavily on mothers. The majority of families do not receive outside child care assistance and report feeling overwhelmed. Parents report high levels of pediatric parenting stress difficulty, as well as moderate symptoms of anxiety. The current study aims to expand such preliminary findings and specifically examine the effects of a newly-developed parenting support program for parents of young children with Type 1 diabetes. The utility of the intervention will be evaluated. It is hypothesized that parents completing the parent support program will report lower levels of psychosocial distress and improved quality of life. It is hypothesized that the children of participating parents will also demonstrate improved quality of life and metabolic control.

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Diabetes Education
• BEHAVIORAL Parental Support