PALO ALTO, Calif. (KCBS)  -- The teenage years can be tough, but the troubles of raising a teenager just beginning puberty are often overlooked.

A new website called Preteen Alliance, sponsored by Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health aims to help parents of tweeners, those middle schoolers too old for toys but not old enough to drive, to talk and share information.

Changing behavior patterns, attitudes, and habits learned during that time can have lasting effects on the kids as adults, leaving parents with a lot of questions about how to raise their blossoming children.

“The preteen years are really a unique time in the human lifespan. They're bodies are changing. Peer pressure intensifies. Independence increases,” the foundation’s Joanna Caywood told KCBS’s Patti Reising, adding that “even the shift academically and socially going from elementary school to middle school” can be very challenging for both kids and parents.

The website’s goal is to “provide a place where parents can share information, talk, post questions, and learn more information about what it's like to parent pre-teens,” she said.

The website offers parents and educators forums on a variety of topics, ranging from bullying and depression, to abnormal development and eating disorders.

(jro)