Childhood Chronic Illness: An Educational Program for Parents of Children With On-Going Health Care Needs

The long-term goal of this research is to strengthen parents' abilities to manage the complexities of childhood chronic illness. To achieve this goal, the team of parents, health care professionals, and researchers proposes the following specific aim: * Develop, implement, and test a unique psycho-educational program, Living with Childhood Chronic Illness (the Program), for effectiveness with parents of children who have chronic illnesses. The investigators propose the following hypotheses: At both 6 and 12 month follow-up points, parents taking part in the intervention, in contrast to control parents, will have: 1. Greater perceived self-efficacy regarding their ability to manage the child's chronic condition; 2. Greater parental ability to involve their child in shared management activities; 3. Greater parental ability to cope at 6 and 12 months following the end of the intervention; 4. Greater emotional health; and 5. Greater parental perceived family quality of life.