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Coming of age: the emerging science of adolescence
It’s widely accepted that adolescents are misunderstood. Less well known is how far we still have to go to understand adolescence itself. One problem is that it is hard to characterize: the concept of puberty does not capture the decade or more of transformative physical, neural, cognitive and socio-emotional growth that a young person goes through. Another is that science, medicine and policy have often focused on childhood and adulthood as the most important phases of human development, glossing over the years in between.
Yet a better understanding of this phase of life is crucial for ensuring the well-being of a generation projected to be the largest in human history. In this collection, a collaboration between Nature, Nature Research journals and Scientific American, we explore the science of adolescence through multiple lenses, from neuroscience to policy and clinical medicine.
For most of the world’s adolescents, poverty and social marginalization influence health much more than risk-taking does, argue Robert Blum and Jo Boyden.
The idea that disrupted pruning of neuronal connections in the brain during adolescence is a cause of schizophrenia was proposed in 1983. This proved prescient, as subsequent imaging, genetic and molecular research has shown.
Early adolescence (age 10–14) is an important window of opportunity to address gender socialization as the basis for health and social justice. This Comment explains why this is the case and provides illustrative examples of existing evidence on strategies to promote gender equitable attitudes in young adolescents.
Advances in technology and the advent of social media have led to the emergence of a new phenomenon — cyberbullying. Although there are some similarities, approaches to tackling traditional bullying are largely ineffective in combating cyberbullying, which has been linked to adverse mental health and, in extreme cases, suicide.
Identity formation is an important developmental process during adolescence, with several applied and public health implications. To prevent identity development from going astray, educational efforts, prevention programmes and policy initiatives are needed that help young people develop a healthy sense of identity.
The incidence of adolescent obesity is increasing, which has serious long-term implications for the affected individuals and wider society. Here, Thomas Reinehr outlines the effects of adolescent obesity and discusses how the epidemic could be addressed.
Dutch adolescents develop their sexuality in a stepwise manner, gradually progressing from first kiss to first sexual intercourse. Adolescents who follow a stepwise sexual development are more confident and engage in less risky sexual behaviour than those who do not. Thus, the stepwise 'sexual career' is an excellent model for guiding development of age-appropriate sex education.
Recently published data from a large-cohort study confirm the substantial burden of chronic health conditions among childhood cancer survivors, and describe the multiple chronic conditions faced by these individuals. The findings emphasize the need for specialized care in this unique patient population that, as discussed herein, often goes unmet. More must be done to ease the burden on cancer survivors; new models of care are required to improve their long-term health.