The Process by Which Girls Who Develop Type 1 Diabetes before School Age Acquire Self-Management Skills during Puberty and Adolescence

Our aim was to clarify the process by which girls who develop type 1 diabetes before school age acquire self-management skills during puberty and adolescence. We conducted semi-structured interviews with such women who had reached adolescence, and analyzed the results using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA). We found the process to be composed of eight categories: Girls begin to feel they understand their own bodies; Girls give precedence to fun, and forget about their disease; Girls build a foundation for taking control of their physical health; Girls feel “out of sync” with their physical sensations; Girls gain new awareness of their disease due to discrimination and comparing themselves to others; Girls revisit their lifestyle and diabetes care practices, with an eye to their future; Girls employ the wisdom and knowledge they have gained from experience; Girls are frustrated at diabetes’ relent-less presence in their lives. The learning process could be roughly divided into two periods: a period dominated by annoyance, where girls prioritize fun activities and try to forget about their disease, and a period where they leverage their wisdom to revisit their care behaviors and change their lifestyle.