South Asia is home to more adolescents than any global region, and one in five adolescents globally live in India. Among the many issues that adolescents face, poor nutrition, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), marriage, and childbearing are of key importance as they have far-ranging and intergenerational consequences. This Data Note examines the national-level trends and spatial variability at state and district levels for a set of key nutrition outcomes, NCDs, marriage, and childbearing status among Indian adolescents (15-19 years; girls and boys). The findings are based on data from the three rounds of India’s National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) – NFHS 2006, 2016, and 2021. The Data Note concludes with key takeaways for adolescents’ wellbeing and identifies areas for improvement. This Data Note can be used for further inquiry by stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, and program staff at multiple levels.

This book presents a detailed and updated review of the widespread changes that take place during adolescence, adopting a preventive perspective that reflects physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes. It addresses a broad range of aspects, including: the preventive programs and their systemic effects; the role of environment in influencing the healthy behaviors of adolescents and young adults; the use of e-Health technology in health and behavioral interventions for adolescents; and the clinical and prognostic implications of primordial prevention in healthy adolescents. All of these elements are subsequently reviewed using a multidimensional approach, in order to offer extensive information on the complex changes that characterize adolescents’ physiological, psychological, and neurobiological development. In addition, the book depicts the preventive strategies currently used in various social settings (school, family, sport club, health policies) aimed not only at reducing lifestyle risk behaviors, but also at improving resilience, happiness, social involvement, self-esteem, and sociability. This update is essential in the light of the fact that, to date, prevention has mainly been directed towards adolescents with physical or mental disorders rather than their healthy peers. As such, the book offers a valuable tool for pediatricians, child and adolescents psychiatrists, and for all professionals involved in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Adolescence is a critical growth period in which youth develop essential skills that prepare them for adulthood. Prevention and intervention programs are designed to meet the needs of adolescents who require additional support and promote healthy behaviors and outcomes. To ensure the success of these efforts, it is essential that they include reliably identifiable techniques, strategies, or practices that have been proven effective. Promoting Positive Adolescent Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Thriving in the 21st Century identifies key program factors that can improve health outcomes related to adolescent behavior and provides evidence-based recommendations toward effective implementation of federal programming initiatives. This study explores normative adolescent development, the current landscape of adolescent risk behavior, core components of effective programs focused on optimal health, and recommendations for research, programs, and policies.

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.

Administered to more than 11,000 eighth- and tenth-grade students in the fall of 1987, the NASHS offers data concerning the health-related knowledge, behavior, and attitudes in: injury prevention, suicide, AIDS, STD, violence, tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, nutrition, and consumer skills.

This international report from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) World Health Organization collaborative cross-national study [...] presents the key findings on patterns of health among young people in 41 countries and regions across Europe and North America. The document presents a status report on health, health-related behaviour and the social contexts of young people's health in 2005/2006 and provides the latest evidence from a unique cross-national study on the well-being of young people in industrialized nations. [...] In addition to presenting key statistics on young people's health, this report has a special focus on health inequalities. It presents data on gender, age and geographic and socioeconomic dimensions of health differentials. The aim of the report is to highlight where inequalities exist in aspects of young people's health and well-being in order to inform and influence policy and practice and to contribute to health improvement for all young people. [Ed.]