Transition of Adolescents and Young Adults With Diabetes From Pediatric to Adult Care

One will represent a short-term intensive social-behavioral intervention supported by
peer-to-peer social networking in which subjects receive "usual care" from their current
diabetes provider outside the parameters of the study. The second intervention will be a
traditional transition clinic model, where subjects will receive the standard of diabetes
care from a team of combined pediatric and adult practitioners and educators, with added
educational modules and behavioral evaluation and support designed to facilitate the
transition to adult care (i.e., that foster "developmentally tailored care"). The first is
a much less intensive intervention from the standpoint of the providers and gives special
prominence to peer support; the second is provider-intensive. The goal of both
interventions is to improve self-efficacy (confidence in taking ownership of and managing
one's diabetes); i.e., to prepare the patient to move from primary support by family and
providers to a reliance on self-ownership and self-management as a responsible, independent
adult.

Optional sub-study available for parents, spouses, and significant others.