Objectives: Parenting young children with type 1 diabetes (YC-T1D) entails pervasive challenges; parental coping may influence child and parent outcomes. This study used a qualitative descriptive design to describe these challenges comprehensively to inform the user-centered design of an Internet coping resource for parents.
Methods: A "Parent Crowd" of 153 parents of children with T1D onset at ≤ 5 years old submitted textual responses online to open-ended questions about parenting YC-T1D. Systematic coding organized responses into domains, themes, and examples. A supplemental focus group of racial/ethnic minority parents enhanced the sample's diversity and validated findings from the Parent Crowd.
Results: Similar domains and themes emerged from responses of crowdsourcing and focus group participants. In each domain, parenting YC-T1D was challenging, but there was also substantial evidence of positive coping strategies and adaptability.
Conclusions: The study yielded rich data to inform user-centered design of an Internet resource for parents of YC-T1D.
Keywords: crowdsourcing; parental coping; social support; type 1 diabetes; young children.
© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com