ABSTRACT
The scope of this chapter is on the psychosocial tasks of the developing child and adolescent with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and related behavioral research. To date, there has been very little behavioral research focused on youth with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) as this cohort of youth has only begun to appear in larger numbers in the past decade (1). The focus here is on psychosocial issues across the different stages of child and adolescent development, with an emphasis on the family system as one of the most critical-and potentially modifiable-psychological and social influence on the developing child with T1DM. Throughout the development of the child and adolescent with T1DM, we focus on identifying psychosocial factors that put the child with T1DM at increased risk for adverse health outcomes.
