Personal Accounts of the Negative and Adaptive Psychosocial Experiences of People With Diabetes in the Second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) Study DOI: 10.2337/dc13-2536 OBJECTIVE To identify the psychosocial experiences of diabetes, including negative accounts of diabetes and adaptive ways of coping from the perspective of the person with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were 8,596 adults (1,368 with type 1 diabetes and 7,228 with type 2 diabetes) in the second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) study. Qualitative data were responses to open-ended survey questions about suc- cesses, challenges, and wishes for improvement in living with diabetes and about impactful experiences. Emergent coding developed with multinational collabora- tors identified thematic content about psychosocial aspects. The k measure of interrater reliability was 0.72. RESULTS Analysis identified two negative psychosocial themes: 1) anxiety/fear, worry about hypoglycemia and complications of diabetes, depression, and negative moods/hopelessness and 2) discrimination at work and public misunderstanding about diabetes. Two psychosocial themes demonstrated adaptive ways of coping with diabetes: 1) having a positive outlook and sense of resilience in the midst of having diabetes and 2) receiving psychosocial support through caring and com- passionate family, friends, health care professionals, and other people with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS The personal accounts give insight into the psychosocial experiences and coping strategies of people with diabetes and can inform efforts to meet those needs and capitalize on strengths. Diabetes can have a detrimental impact on well-being and psychological functioning (1–5). Emotional distress, depression, and anxiety are common in people with diabetes (2,6–9), and time of diagnosis can be particularly emotional (10,11). However, improved psychosocial functioning may lead to better glycemic control 1 Department of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 2 Public Health Evidence and Insights, Global Public Affairs, Novo Nordisk A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark 3 Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Avicenne Hospital, and Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine d’Ile-de-France, University Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cit´ e, Bobigny, France 4 Interdisciplinary Health Research Academy, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 5 Healthy Lifestyle Institute, Centro Universitario di Ricerca Interdipartimentale Attivit ` a Motoria, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy 6 Departments of Family Medicine and Psychia- try, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada 7 Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Primary and Interdisciplinary Care Antwerp, Uni- versity of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 8 Steno Health Promotion Center, Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark 9 Department of Sociology, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD Corresponding author: Heather L. Stuckey, hstuckey@hmc.psu.edu. Received 30 October 2013 and accepted 26 May 2014. This article contains Supplementary Data online at http://care.diabetesjournals.org/lookup/ suppl/doi:10.2337/dc13-2536/-/DC1. © 2014 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. Heather L. Stuckey, 1 Christine B. Mullan-Jensen, 2 G´ erard Reach, 3 Katharina Kovacs-Burns, 4 Natalia Piana, 5 Michael Vallis, 6 Johan Wens, 7 Ingrid Willaing, 8 Søren E. Skovlund, 2 and Mark Peyrot 9 Diabetes Care 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Diabetes Care Publish Ahead of Print, published online June 27, 2014