STEP: Social Support To Empower Parents

This RCT intervention provides parental social support (informational, affirmational, and emotional) using parent mentors (experienced in the management of the chronic illness) for mothers and fathers of young children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The parent mentors provide both home visits and phone call support over the course of the first year after diagnosis. The hypothesis is that newly diagnosed parents who receive the intervention will perceive less parental concern and worry, less negative impact on the family, more perceived confidence and social support compared to those mothers and fathers not receiving the intervention.