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Although child participation is required for successful Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) management, it is challenging because the child’s young age and immaturity make it difficult to perform self-care. Thus, parental caregivers are expected to be heavily involved in their child’s everyday illness management. Our study aims to investigate how children and parents collaborate to manage T1D and examine how the children become more independent in their self-management through the support of their parents. Through semi-structured interviews with children with T1D and their parents (N=41), our study showed that children’s knowledge of illness management and motivation for self-care were crucial for their transition towards independence. Based on these two factors, we identified four types of children’s collaboration (i.e., dependent, resistant, eager, and independent) and parents’ strategies for supporting their children’s independence. We suggest design implications for technologies to support collaborative care by improving children’s transition to independent illness management. 

Children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) face many challenges with keeping their blood glucose levels within a healthy range because they cannot manage their illness by themselves. To prevent children’s blood glucose from becoming too high or too low, parents apply different strategies to avoid risky situations. To understand how parents of children with T1D manage these risks, we conducted semi-structured interviews with children with T1D (ages 6-12) and their parents (N=41). We identified four types of strategies used by parents (i.e., educated guessing game, contingency planning, experimentation, and reaching out for help) that can be categorized according to two dimensions: 1) the cause of risk (known or unknown) and 2) the occurrence of risk (predictable or unpredictable). Based on our findings, we provide design implications for collaborative health technologies that support parents in better planning for contingencies and identifying unknown causes of risks together with their children.