Teens-Connect: Preventive Psycho-education for Transitioning Teens With Diabetes

Teens-Connect combines Managing Diabetes and TEENCOPE. Managing Diabetes consists of 5 sessions on age-appropriate, educational content related to diabetes problem-solving and self-efficacy to improve self-management. TEENCOPE consists of 5 sessions designed to increase youth's sense of competence and mastery by retraining inappropriate or non-constructive coping styles and forming more positive styles and patterns of behavior. The program is highly interactive and youth can talk with each other on an online moderated discussion board. Youth will be asked to use the website at least twice per week for 4 weeks.

Planet D provides age-appropriate diabetes education on a variety of topics and social networking discussion boards on diabetes, food and exercise, personal interests, and diabetes camp. Planet D addresses emotions and self-management through education and social networking. Youth who register can also create a profile, upload and share pictures, identify favorite news and blog feeds as well as provide comments or tags to other members. Planet D has been online since 2007 and contains numerous diabetes-related articles geared toward youth as well as a secure message board. Youth will be asked to interact with the website twice a week for 4 weeks.