Adolescents are confronted with many choices that have important and potentially long-term effects on their health. While there are promising indications that some health risk behaviors are declining among adolescents, many teenagers still wrestle endlessly with decisions to consume alcohol or drugs, smoke cigarettes, drive in an unsafe manner, or engage in unprotected sex. Others engage in violence and crime. Meanwhile, suggestive media images and counterproductive peer effects seem only to be increasing in influence, while traditional sources of support, including schools, churches, parents, and other positive role models, seem to be waning. Poverty also remains a menace, resulting in hunger and insufficient access to health care; it also is correlated with many of the risky behaviors already noted.1 Such factors join well-known adolescent issues such as depression, magnifying the hazards of an especially vulnerable life stage.
The available data bear witness to the perils of being a teenager. One federal analysis estimated that 20% of adolescents are afflicted with at least one serious health problem.2 Worse, even higher proportions of teenagers are engaged in risky behaviors. While the tragic consequences often can be immediate, complications arising from the unsafe activities of a person's teenage years can have long-lasting effects. Each time this occurs, it adds to the steadily rising health care costs burdening all of us, and it strains the bonds of the social safety net upon which we all ultimately rely.
Therefore, protecting our teens has become a national priority for health care. Thanks to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, currently ongoing, we have a richer view of the factors influencing teenage health risk behaviors. For instance, we are developing a better understanding of how the different contexts of adolescents' lives are related to the choices they make that impact health. These contexts include race, ethnicity, family structure, and others. With improved knowledge about teenage behavior, as well as new information concerning the health risks teenagers face, there is hope that progress is possible. Such progress only can be made by implementing a variety of solutions that account for the various roles played by society, the family, the media, and the poverty that contribute to risky behaviors.
The articles in this issue of Family & Community Health (25:2) address this critical topic of adolescent health. They broaden our understanding of teenage health risk behaviors and offer solutions for helping to improve the lives of a new generation. Naturally, there is no time like the present to renew our commitment to helping young people stay vital, hopeful, and productive. With that, I invite you to consider the contributions of the research that follows.
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