Adolescent Health

"The idea is very appealing for a number of reasons. Adolescent health is an area that fundamentally requires an interdisciplinary perspective in terms of both scholarly work and applied practice. This book promises to deliver in terms of that kind of breadth of perspective, and the author certainly has the qualifications to make real that promise of breadth as well as depth. . . . This would work well as a course text as well as for courses/seminars on adolescent health, adolescent behavior, and adolescent development."

-Michael D. Resnick, University of Minnesota

"How I wish this book had been available when I was a doctoral student! To my knowledge, there are no other books that are focused on all the different relevant adolescent health theories. . . . This is a unique work, and one that has been desperately needed for a long time."

-Elizabeth Saewyc, University of Minnesota

"A book like this is definitely needed. . . . I have been searching for several years to find a core textbook I could use in my graduate course in adolescent health. This book, in combination with selected empirical readings that focus on specific health problems, would be very useful. . . . I could also see this book being a useful general resource for both academics and practitioners."

-Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Healthy growth and development of adolescents is an interest shared by many disciplines. It has long been an area of concern for many people working with young people or studying adolescent behavior. However, despite the common interest, each discipline has its own perspective of adolescent health and uses different terminology to communicate its concerns. Adolescent Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Theory, Research, and Intervention fills a gap in the literature about adolescent health for many disciplines including psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, public health, and health education.

Adolescent Health is a survey textbook that includes an overview of existing theories and current research on interventions that address the social morbidities and mortalities of adolescents. Author Lynn Rew examines theories from a variety of professional disciplines that provide frameworks for understanding adolescent health behavior and health outcomes. Each theory is presented in terms of its essential elements, including its origin, a brief background of the theorist′s philosophical paradigm, the purpose and usefulness of the theory, the meaning and scope of the theory, and, when available, empirical referents.

Key Features

Comprehensively covers social morbidities and mortalities of adolescents including unintentional injuries, suicide, smoking, drug and alcohol use, high-risk sexual activity, eating disorders, mental health problems, runaway behavior, and interpersonal violence.Differentiates theory for practice from theory for research by consolidating multiple theoretical perspectives on adolescent health currently scattered across disciplinary boundaries into a single, multidisciplinary volume.Assists student comprehension by including chapter summaries, suggestions for further study, and listings of related Internet resources. Adolescent Health is designed as a core textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying adolescent health, health-risk behavior in adolescents, and adolescent problem behaviors in a wide range of disciplines such as Health, Nursing, Medicine, Psychology, Human Development, and Human Services. In addition, it is also useful for certification courses in many interdisciplinary adolescent health training programs. The book will also be of interest to academics, researchers, and practitioners who are designing theoretically based interventions.