Adolescence is a time when youth make decisions, both good and bad, that have consequences for the rest of their lives. Some of these decisions put them at risk of lifelong health problems, injury, or death. The Institute of Medicine held three public workshops between 2008 and 2009 to provide a venue for researchers, health care providers, and community leaders to discuss strategies to improve adolescent health.
As seen in Time, USA TODAY, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and on CBS This Morning, BBC, PBS, CNN, and NPR, iGen is crucial reading to understand how the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation. With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s up to the mid-2000s, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person—perhaps contributing to their unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. With the first members of iGen just graduating from college, we all need to understand them: friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world.
Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.
A New York Times Bestseller Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers. Dr. Frances E. Jensen is chair of the department of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician, and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, she is in a unique position to explain to readers the workings of the teen brain. In The Teenage Brain, Dr. Jensen brings to readers the astonishing findings that previously remained buried in academic journals. The root myth scientists believed for years was that the adolescent brain was essentially an adult one, only with fewer miles on it. Over the last decade, however, the scientific community has learned that the teen years encompass vitally important stages of brain development. Samples of some of the most recent findings include: Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily "build" memories. But this heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can become addicted more strongly and for a longer duration than the adult brain. Studies show that girls' brains are a full two years more mature than boys' brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining differences seen in the classroom and in social behavior. Adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought. Recent experimental and human studies show that the occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot impacts later adulthood IQ. Multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities, which may result in habitual short attention in teenagers. Emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than it would affect the adult: stress can have permanent effects on mental health and can to lead to higher risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. Dr. Jensen gathers what we’ve discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making. In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.
More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? This volume reviews in detail the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior and offers thoughtful insights on the issues of sexual initiation, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and the well-being of adolescent families. It provides a systematic assessment of the impact of various programmatic approaches, both preventive and ameliorative, in light of the growing scientific understanding of the topic.
There is a growing concern in relation to the problem of insufficient sleep, particularly in the United States. In the early 1990s a Congressionally mandated commission noted that insufficient sleep is a major contributor to catastrophic events, such as Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez, as well as personal tragedies, such as automobile accidents. Adolescents appear to be among the most sleep-deprived populations in our society, though they are rarely included in sleep assessments. This book explores the genesis and development of sleep patterns in adolescents. It examines biological and cultural factors that influence sleep patterns, presents risks associated with lack of sleep, and reveals the effects of environmental factors such as work and school schedules on sleep. Adolescent Sleep Patterns will appeal to psychologists and sociologists of adolescence who have not yet considered the important role of sleep in the lives of our youth.
A Different Vision: Race and Public Policy, Volume 2 brings together for the first time the ideas, philosophies and interpretations of North America's leading African American economists. Presented in two volumes, Volume 2 includes: * an analysis of urban poverty * discusses aspects of racial inequality and public policy * examines the theory and method which underlies public policy
From a public health perspective, motor vehicle crashes are among the most serious problems facing teenagers. Even after more than six months of being licensed to drive alone, teens are two to three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than are the more experienced drivers. Crash rates are significantly higher for male drivers, and young people in the United States are at greater risk of dying or being injured in an automobile than their peers around the world. In fact, in 2003 motor vehicle crashes was the leading cause of death for youth ages 16-20 in the United States. Understanding how and why teen motor vehicle crashes happen is key to developing countermeasures to reduce their number. Applying this understanding to the development of prevention strategies holds significant promise for improving safety but many of these efforts are thwarted by a lack of evidence as to which prevention strategies are most effective. Preventing Teen Motor Crashes presents data from a multidisciplinary group that shared information on emerging technology for studying, monitoring, and controlling driving behavior. The book provides an overview of the factual information that was presented, as well as the insights that emerged about the role researchers can play in reducing and preventing teen motor crashes.
The world's leading authority on adolescence presents original new research that explains, as no one has before, how this stage of life has changed and how to steer teenagers through its risks and toward its rewards.
Despite a growing body of research and targeted remediation, teenage and novice drivers continue to be six to nine times more likely to die in a crash than they are when they are just a few years older. The World Health Organization reports that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death globally among 15 to 19 year olds. In light of these crash statistics, understanding the teen driver problem remains of paramount public health importance around the world. The Handbook of Teen and Novice Drivers: Research, Practice, Policy, and Directions provides critical knowledge for a broad range of potential readers, including students, teachers, researchers in academics, industry and the federal government, public policy makers at all levels, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers, driving instructors, and parents and their teens.
