Growing through adolescence: a gendered approach is needed

Excerpt

Adolescents now make up more than a quarter of the world’s population, largely due to significant reductions in child mortality in recent decades (Sawyer et al. 2012). Adolescence represents the years between childhood and adulthood, encompassing attainment of physical and sexual maturity and increasing social independence. It is a stage of extensive neurological development which is known to be particularly sensitive to environmental exposures. At the same time, young people experience major social transitions in different spheres of their lives, including family, school and peer relations, and the impact of these is in turn influenced by wider sociocultural, political and economic factors. These transitions all interact to “modify childhood trajectories towards health and wellbeing” (Viner et al. 2012). It is not surprising, therefore, that the second decade of life is now recognised as a key opportunity for investment and intervention (WHO 2014). Traditionally a neglected phase of the life course, there has been a renewed public health focus on adolescence in recent years which is to be welcomed. …