child and adolescent development research paper

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Research on Adolescence in the Twenty-First Century

Robert crosnoe.

1 Department of Sociology and Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712

Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson

2 Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-4020

Recent methodological advances have allowed empirical research on adolescence to do better justice to theoretical models. Organized by a life course framework, this review covers the state of contemporary research on adolescents' physical, psychological, interpersonal, and institutional pathways; how these pathways connect within primary ecological contexts; and how they relate to broader patterns of societal stratification and historical change. Looking forward, it also emphasizes three future challenges/opportunities, including efforts to illuminate biosocial processes, link adolescence to other life stages, and account for the influence of major social changes (e.g., the new media).

Introduction

First coined by Hall (1904) only a century ago, adolescence was “created” by the convergence of multiple trends, including labor and schooling laws, that extended dependency beyond childhood and delayed entry into adult roles ( Modell & Goodman 1990 ). Adolescence as a period of dependency and preparation for adulthood has since been reinforced through more recent social changes, including economic restructuring and changing cultural norms about parenting ( Goldin & Katz 2008 , Settersten et al. 2005 ). Research on adolescence has also changed dramatically. This review discusses recent developments in this literature, being cognizant of their historical underpinnings while focusing on the future. Given our background in the life course tradition, as well as the inherent importance of transitions, trajectories, and context to understanding this life stage, we use a life course framework to organize our review. Owing to space constraints, we focus primarily on American adolescents.

In his 1989 review, Dornbusch wrote that research on adolescence was turning from psychologists studying “individual adolescents carrying out their developmental tasks” (p. 233) to contextual approaches emphasizing transactions between adolescents and their environments. This trend has since intensified, reflecting refinements of theoretical models, including human ecology ( Bronfenbrenner & Morris 1998 ) and the life course paradigm ( Elder 1998 ). A central imagery of the latter, our focus here, is of lives as a tapestry of three threads—developmental trajectories (physical and psychological growth), social pathways (sequences of institutional roles and activities), and social convoys (continuity and change in interpersonal relations)—situated in settings of daily life, larger structures of society, and the broader sweep of history.

Unfortunately, studying this dynamic, multilayered model of adolescence has taxed methodological and data resources ( Elder & Giele 2009 ). Recently, however, data sets on children have aged into adolescence (e.g., Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth), and data sets on adolescents have aged into adulthood (e.g., National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, or Add Health). Data sets are also integrating biological, behavioral, and setting data. At the same time, significant advances in longitudinal and multilevel modeling have allowed researchers to capture individual and population trajectories and to identify person-context effects ( Bollen & Curran 2006 , Bryk et al. 2002 ). Of note is that qualitative and mixed methods research projects are also increasingly emphasizing context, longitudinal change, and the multiple strands of adolescent development ( Giordano et al. 2006 ).

In other words, sociologists are making progress on a more holistic understanding of adolescents in society. In reviewing this progress, we focus on each of the three main strands of the adolescent life course before turning to the ways in which their interweaving is embedded in ecological contexts and both reflects and contributes to population-level inequalities.

Three Threads in the Life Course Tapestry

Exhaustively reviewing recent research on the three main strands of the life course is impossible. As just one example, the United States has a high teen pregnancy rate that contributes to the overall rate of nonmarital fertility, and early parenthood relates to past and future socioeconomic disadvantages in complex ways ( Mollborn 2007 ). As a result, this topic could fill an entire review article, and in fact has ( Furstenberg 2003 ). Also regrettably left out are issues such as disordered eating and bullying. Consequently, this review should be viewed as an effort to put forward a limited set of illustrative examples of new ways to think about old issues.

Developmental Trajectories

Adolescence is a period of rapid change. This change is dramatically crystallized in the flood of hormonal activity and rapid physiological development that constitutes puberty ( Susman et al. 2003 ). Great psychological and emotional change also occurs during adolescence. In the years following puberty, adolescents are faced with the task of establishing their own identity separate from their parents, which may be stressful ( Kroger 2007 ). At the same time, rates of risky behavior (e.g., substance use, delinquency, sexual activity) also rise markedly, especially among boys ( Bachman et al. 2002 ). A hallmark of adolescence is that maturation can occur at different velocities in different domains of development, so that youth may look or feel like adults in some ways but not in others.

Beginning with puberty, a great deal of attention has been focused on pubertal timing, following earlier work outside the United States ( Stättin & Magnusson 1990 ). Primarily among girls, going through puberty earlier than the norm is associated with a host of adjustment problems, including risky sex and delinquency. Sociologists have elucidated many mechanisms underlying these patterns, which are not entirely hormonal or biological in nature. One concerns premature self- and other-perceptions of early maturers, especially girls, as adults. In other words, they are adult-like physically and, as a result, may engage in actions or put themselves in situations that are ahead of their emotional or cognitive capacities ( Cavanagh 2004 , Haynie 2003 ). Another mechanism is increased distress related to growing size in the context of strict norms about female body weight ( Ge et al. 2001 ). These socioemotional difficulties in early adolescence can then disrupt academic functioning ( Cavanagh et al. 2007 ). Pubertal timing, therefore, represents an intersection of biological, emotional, social, and institutional processes.

Turning to mental health, adolescence marks the emergence of gender differences in depression—with girls higher than boys—that persist for decades ( Hankin et al. 2007 ). Efforts to explain this trend have focused primarily on social psychological phenomena, including gender differences in self-concept, management of daily stressors, experiences of puberty, and the rigidity and enforcement of societal standards of appearance and behavior ( Martin 1996 , Rosenfield et al. 2000 ). A particularly insightful sociological approach to adolescent depression, regardless of gender, concerns how it is interpreted by others. For example, depression can be strongly stigmatized in social groups when it is perceived as mental illness as opposed to a health problem, leading depressed youth to be isolated from others just when they need more support ( Martin et al. 2007 ). Indeed, social responses to adolescent distress influence whether it can have long-term effects on other areas of life, including education ( McLeod & Fettes 2007 ). Thus, socialized perspectives on depression and other psychological constructs reveal insight into the complex dance between self and other that characterizes adolescence.

Identity development is another psychological process that has been studied from a variety of angles. The consensus is that it is a highly social process, with young people slowly integrating the different pieces of themselves that they come to understand through social interactions into a cohesive sense of who they are and where they fit in the world ( Kroger 2007 ). In the past two decades, considerable research has centered on the development of group-based identities. For example, racial identity taps into the significance and meaning attached to race within individuals' overall senses of self. According to work by Sellers and associates (1998) on African American youth, racial identity has four dimensions: ( a ) salience (how much race is part of one's self-concept), ( b ) centrality (whether one defines him or herself through race), ( c ) regard (the degree of positive or negative feelings about one's race), and ( d ) ideology (beliefs about how someone of a certain race should act). Across minority groups, these dimensions tend to increase as adolescence unfolds and are strongly related to mental health ( Mandara et al. 2009 , Umaña-Taylor et al. 2009 ). For the most part, the benefits of racial identity are strongest when minority adolescents have reached the achieved stage of identity development, meaning that they have committed to a particular identity after exploring what it means and what alternative identities might be possible ( Seaton et al. 2006 ). Similar research has been done on sexual identity, tracing the gradual process by which adolescents come to see themselves as homosexual and the role that this process plays in healthy development ( Russell & Sigler-Andrews 2003 ).

As for risky behavior, understanding why adolescents become more reckless even as they develop critical thinking skills has long been a major activity of adolescence researchers. One explanation is that adolescence is a time of heightened sensitivity to social influences and greater propensity toward emotional stimulation. These developmental changes have traditionally been viewed as by-products of identity development, but recent neurological research is shedding new light on this phenomenon ( Dahl & Spear 2004 ). Specifically, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies suggest that increased risky behavior during adolescence reflects different rates of growth in the brain's socioemotional and cognitive control systems. After puberty, dopamine receptors increase rapidly in regions that control sensation-seeking, which encourages behaviors that bring some emotional or sensory reward ( Steinberg 2008 ). Peer approval is one such reward, and ample evidence indicates that engaging in some level of dangerous behavior can elicit peer esteem and popularity ( Allen et al. 2005 , Kreager & Staff 2009 ). Importantly, structural changes of equivalent magnitude do not occur in the prefrontal cortex, which controls cognition, until adolescents approach young adulthood. That enhanced self-regulation skills tend to come after the increased propensity toward sensation-seeking helps to explain the increase in risky behavior that characterizes the years between the end of childhood and the start of adulthood ( Dahl & Spear 2004 , Steinberg 2008 ). Clearly, other factors are also at work, including changing cultural norms about permissible behavior and increasing opportunities for engaging in certain behaviors, but neurological development is certainly a piece of the puzzle.

As is evident even from this very selective discussion, adolescent development crosses many different psychological, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral domains. As a result, understanding one domain often requires consideration of others.

Social Pathways

Beyond the family, two key institutions structure the social pathways of adolescence. Beginning with schools, sociologists have traditionally studied the organization of high schools via academic tracks (e.g., vocational, college preparatory). As formal tracking has been largely dismantled ( Lucas 2001 ), new organizational schemas have been identified, including patterns of course-taking, critical courses (e.g., advanced math), and course trajectories ( Gamoran & Hannigan 2000 , McFarland 2006 , Riegle-Crumb 2006 ). Math is a clear example, as it is highly structured and strongly predicts educational and occupational attainment ( Adelman 2006 , Frank et al. 2008 , Riegle-Crumb 2006 ). Case studies have yielded new insights on the implications of curricular structure. McFarland (2006) , for example, examined student flow across math courses in two high schools, one characterized by five math trajectories with fewer lower-ability courses over time, and the other with a branching tree structure in which students move from a single trunk into four eventual trajectories of increasing differentiation. In each structure, specific courses represent critical junctions between trajectories and in math persistence altogether.

Thus, students' school pathways are far more complex than the traditional view of tracking suggests. Studying these pathways also reveals new insights into gender differences in education. Girls have been surpassing boys in most academic domains in secondary and postsecondary education for some time, especially among African Americans. Research on coursework trajectories suggests that girls have now also closed the gap with boys in math and science in terms of the course credits they accrue in high school. However, despite their advantage in college enrollment and graduation ( Buchman & DiPrete 2006 ), they remain underrepresented in these curricula in college ( Riegle-Crumb 2006 ).

Studies in the past decade have also emphasized the changing role of higher education in adolescents' lives. Expectations to earn four-year and graduate degrees have risen dramatically, faster than actual attainment ( Jacob & Wilder 2010 , Reynolds et al. 2006 ). In line with a “college for all” norm ( Rosenbaum 2001 ), expectations to complete college have become less tied to social class and previous achievement ( Goyette 2008 , Reynolds et al. 2006 , Schneider & Stevenson 1999 ). More than 80% of high school seniors in 2008 reported that they would probably or definitely earn a four-year college degree ( Bachman et al. 2009 ). Some of the least educationally ambitious students may have dropped out of school before senior year and, therefore, would be absent from such statistics, but educational expectations are actually even higher when measured at eighth or tenth grade instead ( Goyette 2008 , Jacob & Wilder 2010 ). The rise in expectations to earn a college degree has been even steeper among girls, who now expect BAs at higher rates than boys, with little difference within gender between blacks and whites ( Jacob & Wilder 2010 ).

Commonly cited explanations for rising educational expectations include ( a ) an increase in the earnings payoff to college (versus high school) graduation; ( b ) expanding higher education options, including online degrees and community colleges; and ( c ) trends in the educational attainment of parents ( Berg 2007 , Goldin & Katz 2008 , Goyette 2008 , Schneider & Stevenson 1999 ). Regarding the latter, the relative risk aversion thesis suggests that adolescents strive for at least as much education as their parents have. As parents' average education levels rise across cohorts, therefore, so do adolescents' educational expectations ( Breen & Goldthorpe 1997 ).

Paid work is another institution shaping adolescence, with nearly all high school students employed during the school year at some point while in high school ( Apel et al. 2007 , Mortimer 2003 , National Research Council 1998 ). Building on foundational studies from the 1980s and 1990s, recent research has elucidated the mix of risks and benefits of paid work for adolescents. Although adolescent work often starts earlier, most studies focus on high school, when employment is more likely to occur in the formal sector and for longer hours. Moreover, school-year employment continues to garner the most attention, despite higher rates of summer employment ( Mortimer 2003 , Perreira et al. 2007 ). These foci reflect concerns about potentially competing demands of school and employment, key institutions that structure the social pathways of adolescence. The question is whether (or under what conditions) employment facilitates educational attainment and builds human capital useful later in the labor market or whether employment, especially working 20 h or more per week, can distract from academic pursuits and foster various problem behaviors, including delinquency and substance use ( Lee & Staff 2007 , McMorris & Uggen 2000 , Mortimer 2003 , Paternoster et al. 2003 ).

In the past two decades, a major activity has been in understanding the variable meaning and consequence of paid work in adolescence. For example, the outcomes linked to work hours depend on the goal of working, including saving for college and supporting the self or family ( Marsh 1991 , Newman 1996 ). Recent evidence indicates that work can promote educational attainment among those with low academic promise ( Staff & Mortimer 2007 ) and among poor and/or minority students ( Entwisle et al. 2005 ). For example, teenagers in Newman's (1999) ethnography of fast food workers often rejected the delinquency of peers in choosing to work, and their jobs brought them coworkers and supervisors that supported and rewarded their educational pursuits. Along these same lines, Lee & Staff (2007) compared adolescents who work intensively and those who do not do so but who share similar preexisting background characteristics. They found no effect on dropout among adolescents with backgrounds indicative of a high propensity to work intensively. These students tended to be from socioeconomically disadvantaged families and have weaker school performance. Additional studies indicate that the association between intensive employment and substance use is largely limited to whites ( Johnson 2004 ) and that intensive employment can actually help curb substance use and delinquency for adolescents with earlier histories of these problem behaviors ( Apel et al. 2007 ).

More effort also has been devoted to promoting causal inference in research on adolescent employment. Both spuriousness and bidirectionality are concerns in studies of work hour effects on adolescent behavior. Longitudinal studies adjusting for known covariates, including lagged measures of the outcome, often indicate that that preexisting differences account for many observed effects ( Schoenhals et al. 1998 , Warren et al. 2000 ). Links to substance use and some academic outcomes, however, persist ( McMorris & Uggen 2000 , Mortimer & Johnson 1998 , Paternoster et al. 2003 , Schoenhals et al. 1998 ). Other techniques, such as fixed and random effects models and propensity score matching, have revealed no evidence of work hour effects on adolescent behavior or effects only on adolescents with low or moderate propensities to work ( Lee & Staff 2007 , Paternoster et al. 2003 ), but they have been applied to a limited set of behavioral dimensions to date.

Thus, research is moving toward a clearer picture of how developmental, educational, human capital, and behavioral outcomes are linked to employment in adolescence. The same can be said of studies on other social pathways of adolescents (e.g., academic pathways).

Social Convoys

Adolescence is a time of both quantitative and qualitative change in the matrix of social relationships. In particular, the push and pull between parents and peers has been a dominant theme of research on adolescence for years.

Over time, the normative break with parents in adolescence has been reconceptualized as a renegotiation of parent and child roles, not disengagement. In other words, adolescents may spend less time with, and seek more autonomy from, parents, but they typically do so in the context of stable strong connections and parental influence ( Larson et al. 1996 ). Similar trends extend to other family relationships (e.g., with siblings and grandparents), which may loosen more in terms of shared time than in emotional bonds ( Crouter et al. 2004 , King et al. 2003 ).

The idea of parent-adolescent renegotiation has led to new ways of thinking about oft-studied issues. One of the best examples concerns parental monitoring. The general consensus has long been that adolescents engage in fewer problem behaviors when their parents keep close track of what they do and with whom they associate, in part because monitoring constrains opportunities to engage in such behaviors and in part because it helps to develop adolescent self-control ( Browning et al. 2005 , Hay 2006 ). Yet, Stättin & Kerr (2000) have argued that the most common indicator of parental monitoring—parental knowledge about adolescents' activities and peers—may be an effect of adolescent behavior more than a cause. In other words, well-behaved adolescents share their lives with their parents, creating the appearance of monitoring being behaviorally protective. More likely, this link is reciprocal—monitoring promoting prosocial behavior that, in turn, increases parent-adolescent relationship quality, adolescents' openness to parental monitoring, and adolescents' willingness to self-disclose to parents ( Fletcher et al. 2004 , Yau et al. 2009 ). This debate has driven home the need to think of adolescents' developmental trajectories and social convoys as intertwined over time.

Along these same lines, adolescents are increasingly viewed as eliciting parenting, not just being shaped by it. For example, changes in U.S. antipoverty policy that emphasize the role of fathers have brought attention to nonresident fathers ( Furstenberg 2007 ). Although the assumption is that having involved fathers is good for adolescents, this link partially reflects the tendency for nonresident fathers to be more involved in the lives of well-adjusted adolescents ( Hawkins et al. 2007 ). As another example, the normative increase in parent-child conflict during adolescence is less pronounced for second- or later-born children, as parents learn what to expect from their first-born children ( Shanahan et al. 2007 ). Another line of research that views both sides of the parent-adolescent relationship concerns the degree to which the characteristics and behaviors of parents and adolescents are aligned. Consider that religious mismatches within the family (e.g., religious mother and nonreligious adolescent, or vice versa) appear to engender adolescent problem behavior ( Pearce & Haynie 2004 ). Approaching parent-adolescent relationships as evolving, two-sided, and mutually influential, therefore, is crucial.

Of course, peers continue to be a primary focus of research on adolescence. Much of this research concerns how friends influence each other and how adolescents select into different kinds of friendships, but more attention is now being paid to the larger peer groupings in which these friendships are embedded. For example, boys are at greater risk for emotional distress when they are members of networks that are large and cohesive, but girls are at greater risk in networks that are large and noncohesive. This gendered pattern reflects differences in the interpersonal styles of girls and boys ( Falci & McNeely 2009 ). As another example, friendships tend to have greater influence on adolescent delinquency when they are embedded in dense networks ( Haynie 2001 ). Many social and institutional settings, such as schools and neighborhoods, can also be thought of as peer contexts, in that they organize the friendship market and serve as a center of youth culture ( Harding 2009 ). Peer relations and dynamics within such contexts may be better characterized by qualitative groupings of youth (e.g., crowds) as opposed to quantitatively measurable collectives (e.g., networks). Indeed, many meaningful peer groups are fluid but matter because they provide common identity and serve as the practical universe of potential friends ( Akerlof & Kranton 2002 , Brown & Klute 2003 ). Barber and associates (2001) , for example, used the archetypal characters from the movie The Breakfast Club (e.g., the jock, the rebel, the princess) as a way of organizing data collection on such peer crowds. Importantly, interpersonal processes that occur within larger bands of peers seem to do as much, if not more, to predict the positive and negative mental health and educational outcomes of adolescents than intimate friendships, especially in the long term.

Historically, scholars studied another key peer relation—romantic relationships—in terms of major developmental tasks (e.g., preparation for adult relationships), leading to a focus on their benefits ( Shulman & Collins 1998 ). Later, risks took the spotlight, including links of girls' dating with depression, stress, and abuse, and more attention was paid to the consequences of stricter norms about appropriate dating (and sexual) behavior for girls ( Hagan & Foster 2001 , Joyner & Udry 2000 , Kreager & Staff 2009 ). Increasingly, however, scholars have recognized that adolescent romance may be developmentally positive or negative depending on the characteristics of the partners, the quality of the relationship, and the context in which it occurs. For example, romantic relationships may foster early sexual activity but also reduce the psychological strain of sex and increase contraceptive use. They may be especially important as buffers against the potential harm of weak bonds with parents or as a stand-ins for close friends ( Giordano et al. 2006 , Manlove et al. 2007 , McCarthy & Casey 2008 ). Importantly, although boys were long thought to be less oriented to and affected by romance, emerging evidence suggests that boys may have equally strong ties to their partners as girls and be more influenced by them. Along with their lower confidence in their romantic skills, these qualities might leave boys vulnerable emotionally to the vicissitudes of adolescent romance ( Giordano et al. 2006 ).

An emerging task is to add a wider variety of extrafamilial and other familial relationships to this traditional focus on parents and peers. Taking such a holistic view of overlapping relationships as they evolve is the best way to capture the concept of social convoys.

The Social Embeddedness of Adolescence

As alluded to throughout the prior discussion, the three main strands of the life course play out—and come together—within social contexts, ranging from small primary and secondary groups (e.g., families) to larger societal institutions (e.g., schools) to macro-level social structures, such as stratification systems based on gender, race, and class. Here, we highlight some recent explorations of this social embeddedness of adolescence.

The Ecological Contexts of Adolescence

Because adolescents have limited mobility, neighborhoods can powerfully structure their lives physically and socially. As a result, studies of neighborhood effects have proliferated in recent years, aided by neighborhood data in specific locales (e.g., Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, L.A. Family and Neighborhood Survey), on the national level (e.g., Add Health), and through demonstration projects moving low-income families to new communities (e.g., the Moving to Opportunity, or MTO, experiment), as well as by qualitative studies of neighborhoods and communities. Most of these studies focus on neighborhood disadvantage and adolescent risk-taking ( Bellair & Roscigno 2000 , Browning et al. 2005 , Dance 2002 , Harding 2003 , Kling et al. 2007 ).

Motivating much of this research is Wilson's (1996) perspective on spatially concentrated disadvantage, which is thought to disrupt networks of social capital that socialize and supervise youth and to hinder the effectiveness of local institutions (e.g., schools, churches) and informal networks in providing social control. Contemporary scholars have sought to identify the mechanisms involved in these processes. For example, Browning and associates (2005) reported that adolescents in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty experienced sexual onset earlier than others but that higher neighborhood collective efficacy delayed sexual onset, at least among adolescents experiencing lower levels of parental monitoring. These findings suggest conditional effects between neighborhood conditions and family functioning, appearing to contradict prior studies downplaying the possibility of multiplicative contextual influences ( Cook et al. 2002 ). Importantly, studies such as another by Browning and associates (2008) raise the issue of rates of risky sex in turn affecting the concentration of STD risk in neighborhoods, with individuals shaping context. Such micro-to-macro examples are rare but need more attention.

As in all examinations of contextual effects, causality has been a concern in neighborhood research. Browning and associates (2005) have argued that findings varying by level of neighborhood exposure suggest true effects. In line with this argument, Harding (2003) reported that neighborhood poverty effects on adolescents persisted when propensity score matching was employed. He also noted that controlling for individual-level factors may obscure real neighborhood effects if they are affected by neighborhood features themselves, a point echoed by Chuang and associates (2005) in arguing that parents may adjust their parenting based on neighborhood conditions. Indeed, instead of isolating neighborhood effects by controlling individual, economic, and family factors, Bellair & Roscigno (2000) have advocated for viewing labor market opportunities as preceding neighborhood disadvantage, family income, and adolescent attachments, all of which affect adolescent behavior. In other words, instead of controlling for family income, family structure, and adolescents' attachments to family, school, and peers to evaluate the link between local labor market conditions and delinquency, they map the effects of local labor market conditions on delinquency through its effects on family income and structure and adolescents' attachments.

With an experimental design, MTO revealed compelling findings about the implications of switching from low-income to middle-income neighborhoods for adolescents. Interestingly, the benefits of such moves were limited to girls, including improvements in mental health and decreases in delinquency. The qualitative components of the experiment suggested several mechanisms underlying these gendered effects, including girls' greater freedom from sexual fears, boys' (especially minority boys') greater difficulty integrating into new peer networks, and boys' continued strong ties to peers from their former communities ( Clampet-Lundquist et al. 2006 , Kling et al. 2007 ). Outside MTO, other qualitative studies of minority youth have detailed the gendered dilemma of youth adaptation to neighborhood disadvantage, especially crime. Girls must live up to feminized social expectations of them while trying to survive often violent conditions, and boys must develop fearsome personae that protect them on the streets but may disadvantage them in other contexts ( Dance 2002 , Jones 2010 ).

Another major ecological setting of adolescence is the school, where young people spend a large proportion of their waking hours. Scholars continue to decipher the effects of the organizational structure of schools (e.g., size, sector, and racial and socioeconomic composition) on student outcomes (see Arum 2000 for a recent review). Yet, the past decade has witnessed considerably more interest in the normative and social climate of schools, as captured by the rates of behaviors and social characteristics in the student body as a whole. These aggregated aspects of the student body tap into the value systems and opportunity structures to which adolescents are exposed on a daily basis, socializing them as well as affecting their ability to act on or against their own proclivities ( Crosnoe 2011 ). For example, adolescents attending schools in which a high proportion of their fellow students come from single-parent homes transition to first sex earlier than others, as this feature of the student body indicates reduced parental supervision of adolescents and their peers and also speaks to normative understandings of sexual relationships and families among students ( Harris et al. 2002 ). As another example, the average body size of students in a school sets the standard of comparison for adolescents' self-evaluations, affecting whether their own body size has implications for their socioemotional functioning ( Crosnoe 2011 ). As a final example, behavioral patterns in the student body as a whole can constrain or strengthen close friends' similarities on substance use ( Cleveland & Wiebe 2003 ). The peer culture of the school, therefore, provides opportunities that condition selection and socialization processes. Importantly, schools do not just expose students to a student body, they also organize peer subsets within the student body through activity and curricular offerings. Consider that the aforementioned Breakfast Club groups ( Barber et al. 2001 ) often arise from extracurricular activities. Moreover, Frank and associates (2008) used school transcripts to identify adolescents sharing the same social and academic space in school, peer groups that were significantly related to student outcomes.

As for the connection between neighborhoods and schools, ethnographic work has been especially insightful. For example, several studies have illuminated the unique challenges faced by working class and low-income African American youth, especially boys, as they simultaneously navigate their neighborhoods and their schools with very different sets of racialized expectations for youth. For such boys, the tough and seemingly defiant posture that they develop among peers in their neighborhoods is often misconstrued and viewed negatively by the middle-class personnel in their schools, leading to academic marginalization and fueling pernicious ideas about the oppositional culture of minority youth ( Dance 2002 , Carter 2006 ).

The point of this neighborhood and school research is that ecological settings create social networks and contexts in which the powerful peer and family processes of adolescence operate. Thus, going beyond structural dimensions of such settings to capture social processes is important.

Adolescence and Social Stratification

The adolescent population is quite diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, social class, and other markers of social location. Especially among sociologists, such diversity has motivated a great deal of research concerning the ways that adolescents' experiences are both a product of and contributor to major systems of social stratification ( Morgan 2005 ).

In part because adolescence is a relatively healthy period in the life course, major health disparities are less common and consistent during this stage compared with others ( Crockett & Peterson 1993 ). Indeed, adolescents from historically disadvantaged minority groups often are similar to or lower than whites in rates of many risky health behaviors, such as drinking ( Harris et al. 2006 ). Yet, the recent rise in obesity has also been problematic from a long-term health perspective, particularly for African American and Latino/a youth ( Ogden et al. 2010 ). Thus, adolescence may play a positive and negative role in race/ethnic disparities across the life course.

On a structural level, school segregation continues to be an issue of great interest ( Rothstein 2004 ). Studies of school composition suggest that racial desegregation has academic benefits for both white and non-white students by exposing them to different ways of thinking and by leading to greater equity in school resources. Yet, students may also feel lowered senses of belonging and perceive more discrimination in diverse schools ( Goldsmith 2004 , Johnson et al. 2001 , Rumberger & Palardy 2005 ). Progress in school desegregation has also often come with increased within-school segregation ( Mickelson 2001 ). Recently, Parents Involved , in which the Supreme Court curtailed use of race in school assignment, has shifted attention from race to socioeconomic status. Efforts to socioeconomically desegregate schools, however, also demonstrate a mixture of benefits and risks, with research suggesting that academic gains might be accompanied by psychosocial problems and that socioeconomically integrating schools would not alter levels of racial segregation ( Crosnoe 2009 , Reardon et al. 2006 ).

On an interpersonal level, Ogbu's (1997) oppositional culture thesis—which, among other things, argues that African American and Latino/a peers de-emphasize achievement and equate it with acting white—has continued to generate debate. Quantitative examinations have provided little evidence of this phenomenon ( Ainsworth-Darnell & Downey 1998 , Harris 2006 ). Mixed methods examinations have suggested that it does occur occasionally but with some important caveats: ( a ) It is rooted in schools' long-term misunderstanding of minority group culture, and ( b ) it is not racialized but instead happens in youth culture more generally, in ways that are manifested differently by race and class ( Carter 2006 , Tyson et al. 2005 ). In total, research on oppositional culture has probably done less to unpack race/ethnic achievement gaps than it has to illuminate the nexus of youth culture and schooling.

For the most part, research on socioeconomic disparities has continued to focus on socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty), especially after the contentious public debate about welfare reform ( Gennetian et al. 2008 ). Much of this research suggests that poverty is clearly detrimental to adolescents but perhaps less so than it is for children ( Duncan et al. 1998 ). At the same time, the past decade has also witnessed significant advances in our understanding of socioeconomic advantage. Lareau's (2004) work has been enormously influential. This research has demonstrated that middle-class parents tend to follow an approach to parenting, concerted cultivation, that prioritizes providing children cognitively and socially stimulating activities at home and in formal organizations that develop skills, enhance their senses of entitlement, and teach them how to work institutional systems. Such parenting is so well aligned with the American educational system that it gives their children a competitive edge in school. Initially, Lareau focused on elementary school, but her basic insights have been replicated in studies of adolescence ( Crosnoe & Huston 2007 , Kim & Schneider 2005 ). Moreover, Lareau's recent follow-up of her sample in young adulthood revealed that parenting-related socioeconomic advantages persisted into adolescence and beyond.

Turning to immigration, traditional assimilation perspectives posited improved outcomes for the descendants of immigrants compared with immigrants themselves. Yet, newer research suggests that the foreign- and U.S.-born children of immigrants outperform third-plus-generation youth, despite higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage among immigrants. Evidence of this immigrant paradox is more consistent among adolescents than children ( Glick & Hohmann-Marriott 2007 , Kao 1999 , Portes & Rumbaut 2001 , Suarez-Orozco et al. 2009 ). This age difference could reflect adolescents' greater time to adapt to American schools and culture. It could also reflect biases in high school data sets, as immigrants from many regions are more likely to drop out of or bypass school ( Oropesa & Landale 2009 ). Perhaps more importantly, evidence of the immigrant paradox varies widely according to national origin, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. For example, adolescents whose parents emigrated from Asia best illustrate the immigrant paradox, at least in the academic realm. Asia is a region in which migration is positively selective on education and income, but, beyond socioeconomic status, Asian immigrant parents tend to have high standards of academic success, go to great lengths to secure educational opportunities for adolescents, and are highly planful (especially financially) about education ( Kao 2004 , Zhou 2009 ). This diversity in immigrant outcomes has supported theoretical reconceptualizations, such as segmented assimilation ( Portes & Zhou 1993 ), contending that the outcomes of assimilation depend on the context in which it occurs.

Of course, the adolescent population is stratified by factors beyond race and family background that also shape trajectories into adulthood. Two examples are obesity and homosexuality. Because of the stigma of obesity in American culture, obese youth are at heightened risk for psychosocial difficulties, which appear to disrupt their educational trajectories ( Crosnoe 2011 ). Similarly, same-sex-attracted youth often face strong social sanctions during high school that can filter into multiple domains, including academic progress ( Pearson et al. 2007 , Russell & Joyner 2001 ). In both cases, adolescents' characteristics position them on a social hierarchy to create short-term problems with long-term consequences. These stratifying processes are similar to gender, race, class, and immigration in that their significance in adolescence may create and reinforce unequal life chances.

New Directions for Research on Adolescence

Attempts by sociologists and other scholars over the past two decades to answer many of the tough questions about adolescence have raised additional questions. Having looked back, therefore, we now look forward. Given the space allowed, we have decided to focus on three specific future directions that touch on particularly provocative and timely debates and discussions in the field.

Biosocial Processes

In recent years, the integration of biomarkers with psychological and social data has helped empirical activity catch up with developmental theory. The sociological value of this activity is not in establishing genetic effects on adolescent behavior but instead in understanding the interplay of genes and environment at work in adolescent behavior ( Guo et al. 2008 ).

Understanding latent genetic influences has been aided by the creation of sibling samples, which allow assessments of sibling similarity in behavioral or other outcomes across sibling pairs of different degrees of genetic relatedness. Analyses of data from one such sample, the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development project, have elucidated the ways in which genetic traits select adolescents into different relationships and elicit different kinds of parenting. They have also demonstrated how the experiences that siblings have outside the home differentiate them on developmental outcomes, despite their genetic relatedness ( Reiss et al. 2000 ). Research on Add Health's diverse sibling pairs subsample has been particularly insightful about variability in shared environment and observed heritability of behaviors across social settings ( Boardman et al. 2008 ). For example, adolescent aggression is genetically influenced in both socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged communities, but the effects of shared environments (e.g., social influences experienced by both siblings) are significantly stronger in disadvantaged communities ( Cleveland 2003 ).

Turning to specific genetic influences, the collection of genetic data in behavioral studies has encouraged deeper exploration of gene-environment interactions. For example, Caspi and associates (2003) , drawing on biological and psychosocial data from New Zealand, reported that stressful life events had a larger impact on depression among youth with short alleles of the 5-HTT promoter polymorphism, which reduces efficiency of serotonin reuptake in the brain. Research by Guo and associates (2008) with the genetic data in Add Health demonstrated that the significance for delinquency of DRD2 alleles, which reduce efficiencies in the dopaminergetic system, is weaker in families with well-organized routines. Such studies push for a transactional view of biology, development, and environment.

Particularly important are genetically informed studies comparing adolescence with other life stages. For example, Dick and associates (2006) , working with genetic and psychosocial data from the United States, reported that the presence of a gene-regulating neurotransmitters, GABRA2, was associated with conduct disorder in adolescence and then with alcohol use in young adulthood. Thus, a genetic predisposition toward risky behavior is manifested differently across stages. A sociological interpretation is that entry into new settings across the transition from adolescence to adulthood might account for such changes.

As for other biomarkers, cortisol is a central hormone in stress response. Because cortisol levels tend to decline over the day, flatter diurnal patterns may signal health risks through the overactivation of physiological stress response ( Susman 2006 ). Efforts to integrate saliva samples and time diaries have revealed that minority youth report higher levels of chronic stress and demonstrate flatter cortisol patterns across the day than whites. Thus, identifying biological mechanisms underlying links between environmental stress and adolescent health may shed light on the role of adolescence in health disparities ( DeSantis et al. 2007 ). Similarly, immunological processes provide a window into environmental effects on youth. For example, McDade (2001) has combined samples of Epstein-Barr virus antibodies with lifestyle data. This work indicates that the stress that adolescents feel from modernization in developing countries is manifested in reduced immune functioning. Like neuroscience, this biomarker research is more common outside sociology, but it touches on core sociological questions, such as the effects of social integration on life chances, thereby representing a growth area for sociologists.

The nature versus nurture debate, therefore, seems to be dying. Indeed, research on adolescence is turning to the synergistic interplay between nature and nurture. Sociologists interested in adolescence have a significant role to play in uncovering the complexities of this interplay moving forward.

Linking Life Stages

Adolescence is better understood when it is viewed within the full life course, and we are now well poised to theorize and empirically evaluate linkages between adolescence and other life stages ( Johnson et al. 2011 ). As noted in the opening section of this review, advances in longitudinal sampling and modeling have facilitated asking and answering questions that involve processes unfolding over time and across contexts. At least in some domains (e.g., education, work), scholars of adolescence are accustomed to thinking about how adolescent experiences affect adult life. Both looking back to childhood and looking forward to adulthood, however, will enable us to elucidate the role of adolescence in the life course.

For example, initial curricular placements and academic achievement in high school are recognized as important to concurrent and future well-being. Yet, the past decade has also witnessed greater emphasis on understanding proximate and distal factors involved in producing varying levels of high school achievement. By following Baltimore schoolchildren from first grade into early adulthood, Alexander and associates (2007) were able to capture the full educational career and, in the process, identify critical periods. Socioeconomic disparities in academic progress at the start of high school were traced back to corresponding disparities in place at the start of first grade and to summer learning differences by socioeconomic status during the elementary school years. These ninth grade differences were then linked to curricular track, high school completion, and college attendance. Their interpretation emphasized how foundational the skills are that are learned in the early years of schooling and the ways in which the in-school and out-of-school settings and experiences that stratify early learning can have lasting, even accumulating, consequences for the life course. Exclusive focus on the adolescent years, and particularly the high school years, misses these processes set in motion much earlier and likely obscures the best points of intervention ( Heckman 2006 ).

As another example, pubertal timing may be a conduit in the connection between disadvantage in childhood and adulthood. Consider that family adversity is among the myriad biological and environmental factors accelerating pubertal timing ( Belsky et al. 2007 ). Cavanagh and associates (2007) have reported that early pubertal timing during middle school is linked to lower grades and the likelihood of course failure at the start of high school, and that as a result, high school completion and the grades of those who graduate are also affected. By stepping back to view longer-term processes, we see additional mechanisms through which family disadvantage impacts children's success in adolescence and adulthood, operating via biological and social processes, as well as their complex interactions.

Finally, charting individual trajectories over time provides important context for understanding what is observed in adolescence. The influential differentiation between life course persistence and adolescence desistance in criminal behavior is one example ( Moffitt 1993 ). Another concerns adolescent substance use, which is embedded within a variety of long-term trajectories that have distinct meaning and consequence. Following cohorts of adolescents in the Monitoring the Future Surveys into adulthood, Schulenberg and associates (2005) linked different patterns of substance use to the pathways through which adolescents transition into adulthood. Levels of substance use in adolescence anticipated the configuration of role transitions young people experienced in the years immediately following, but were also shaped by them. Young people who worked and did not attend school during these years binge drank more frequently during high school. Those who moved away from home for college were less frequent binge drinkers in high school but quickly caught up. These patterns suggest the varied settings and conditions that different adult statuses bring but also the potential for psychosocial preparation for these statuses during adolescence.

The life course paradigm emphasizes that development is lifelong and that no life stage can be understood in isolation. These examples highlight the advances that can be made if we rise to the challenge posed in this life course principle.

Social Change

Of course, linkages among life stages are also shaped by broader changes in the structure of society. Economic restructuring, for example, is dramatically affecting education and employment in young adulthood and beyond, and we need to better understand what this means for adolescents. Changes in the relative size of the manufacturing and service sectors have occurred in such a way as to reduce the availability of jobs with benefits, increase the income premium of higher education, and create greater fluidity between jobs ( Goldin & Katz 2008 ). Furthermore, Fullerton & Wallace (2007) characterized a set of interrelated changes occurring since the 1970s, including declining unionization, downsizing, growing use of contingent labor, and organizational restructuring as a “flexible turn in U.S. labor relations (p. 201),” which has eroded workers' perceptions of job security. Such changes are increasing the importance of adolescents' educational experiences in the status attainment process, thereby magnifying the significance of all of the factors discussed in this review that matter to these experiences.

In this context, the process of becoming adult has clearly changed, with scholars suggesting that adolescence has been extended to older ages or even that a new life stage should be recognized ( Settersten et al. 2005 ). Demands for and returns to education have risen, and relatedly, the period of dependency and semi-autonomy has lengthened. We know young people are staying in school longer, more often combining employment with higher education, and marrying later ( Bernhardt et al. 2001 , Fitzpatrick & Turner 2007 , U.S. Census Bureau 2006 ). Although race/ethnic and socioeconomic variability in these patterns has long been recognized ( Settersten et al. 2005 ), we are only just beginning to address a number of other important questions related to these broad social changes, including what they mean for the achievement of social and financial autonomy and relationships with others, including parents, and what we need to equip adolescents with in order for them to successfully navigate the transition to adulthood.

Two major collaborative efforts have laid an important foundation for understanding the implications of these social changes for adolescence. The first is the MacArthur Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and Public Policy ( Settersten et al. 2005 ). It has reported, among other things, that parents, especially those with more resources, increasingly support their children through the transition to adulthood financially and otherwise. About one-third of 18–34 year olds in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics received cash support from their parents, at an average of just over $3,400 per year ( Schoeni & Ross 2005 ). This and other forms of ongoing material assistance (e.g., support of higher education pursuits, allowing children to remain in the home, assistance in establishing independent households, providing childcare) may be yet another way in which parents' level of education and income can affect the status attainment of their children. The second effort is the Society for Research on Adolescence's Study Group on Adolescence in the Twenty-First Century ( Larson et al. 2002 ). One of its reports has argued that changes in family size, structure, and relationships; increased participation in school and after-school activities; and the advent of the Internet have created new opportunities for adolescents to develop more flexible social skills and capacities to move between diverse social worlds. It also notes, however, that those from families in poverty and those in elite families are more deprived when it comes to the social experience that builds these skills.

Another major social change concerns the transformation of social interaction though new media and technologies. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has reported that, in 2009, 75% of 12–17 year olds had cell phones and 93% went online ( Lenhart et al. 2010 ). The report also indicated that 76% of families with adolescents now had broadband access at home. Adolescents also go online via cell phones and portable gaming devices, in addition to computers at home. These technologies offer new opportunities for leisure, shopping, and staying in touch with others, as well as broader access to information and support. Roughly one-third of adolescents in the Pew study who went online used the Internet to gather information on health, dieting, or physical fitness, and 17% looked online for information about sensitive health topics, such as those related to drug use, mental health, and sex ( Lenhart et al. 2010 ).

Importantly, the Internet can also be thought of as a new kind of peer context. A recent study of 800 American youth revealed that, for most youth, new media technologies are used primarily to maintain and extend friendship networks ( Ito et al. 2010 ). Moreover, the Internet provides opportunities for socially isolated youth to connect with others in meaningful ways while also enabling the peer cultures of high school—including negative dimensions, such as bullying and gossiping—to follow young people home ( Crosnoe 2011 , Raskauskas & Stoltz 2007 ). Thus, new media represent a potential context of resource and risk related to peers.

Other potential risks ranging from driving accidents related to texting or talking on cell phones to exposure to questionable online content or social interactions (e.g., pornography, gambling, sexual solicitation) have concerned parents, educators, and lawmakers. Debates continue over whether risks can also accrue from the potentially sensitive or identifying information, including pictures and videos, adolescents post online about themselves and one another, or whether this is a healthy part of adolescents' self-expression and identity exploration. Nearly three-quarters of online youth use a social networking Web site such as Facebook or MySpace ( Lenhart et al. 2010 ). A recent content analysis of teenagers' MySpace pages indicated that 40% of adolescent users restricted access to their pages to identified friends. Yet, 10% of adolescent users who did not restrict access posted their full name, and many more listed their hometowns and the name of their schools, which could be used to identify them ( Hinduja & Patchin 2008 ).

Relevant empirical evidence about these concerns, however, is rare, and the topic is notably absent from the top sociological publishing outlets. Yet, sociologists have much to contribute, as adolescents' use of new media raises important questions about social networks, personal relationships, and identity development. What are the implications of cell phone use or online communication for parental monitoring and peer interactions? Do electronic interactions replace or complement face-to-face interactions? Do online venues provide a safe or dangerous place for identity work? As an example highlighting the potential work to be done, Blais and associates (2008) reported that Internet activity was related to changes in the quality of best friendships and romantic relationships over the course of a year among Canadian adolescents. Specifically, use of instant messaging, which occurs with known others, enhanced these relationships, but visits to chat rooms, which primarily involve communicating with strangers, were associated with worsening relationship quality over time. As these findings suggest, we will need to be specific about the types of media being used when we attempt to understand their implications for today's adolescents.

As is evident from this review, the rich sociological tradition of research on adolescence has continued into the new century. Still, the sociology of adolescence may be at something of a crossroads. The mapping of the human genome and the increasing sophistication of brain imaging are reshaping the scientific agenda in ways that, at first glance, do not tap into the traditional strengths of sociologists. At the same time, the renewed interest in childhood as a critical period—generated by findings that early interventions bring greater long-term returns to investments than those targeting adolescence ( Heckman 2006 )—has shifted attention to earlier stages. Another way of looking at these developments, however, is that they are opportunities. Indeed, sociologists are well-positioned to demonstrate how biological processes cannot be understood absent a firm sociological understanding of the environment in which they play out over time, explain how the long reach of childhood is channeled through adolescence, and identify ways in which adolescence produces turning points and deflections in the life course.

Summary Points

• Research on adolescence has moved in a sociological direction by emphasizing the role of context in shaping adolescents' lives and the link between adolescent development and societal inequality, fueled in part by recent advances in data collection and methodology.
• Early childhood experiences are very important to long-term health, educational, and behavioral trajectories, but adolescent experiences play key roles in this process by magnifying or deflecting children's trajectories.
• Many of the major developmental trajectories of adolescence, including those related to puberty, risky behavior, academic achievement, health, and identity development, reflect a complex interplay of biology, personal agency, and environment.
• Adolescents' navigation of institutional systems, such as school and work, have become increasingly complex and interrelated, with high school coursework more consequential to long-term outcomes in the globalized economy and paid work during adolescence becoming more common and potentially either risky or beneficial for educational attainment depending on motivation, background, and academic competence.
• Adolescents tend to spend less time with parents and other relatives and seek more autonomy while becoming more immersed in expanding peer networks, including romantic networks, but they typically do so while maintaining strong emotional ties to their families.
• Although much of the research on school and neighborhood effects on adolescent behavior has focused on the structural features of these contexts, more attention is being paid to the ways in which they organize peer groups that differ widely in terms of norms, values, and behavioral opportunities, as well as the ways families affect and respond within them.
• Gender, race, social class, and immigration stratify adolescents' lives, with poor and/or minority youth particularly vulnerable in the educational system, through a variety of structural inequalities and interpersonal processes, but immigrant youth often demonstrate a high level of resilience in the face of similar risks.

Acknowledgments

Support for R.C. came from a faculty scholar award from the William T. Grant Foundation, as well as a center grant to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24 HD042849; PI: Mark Hayward). The authors thank Anna Thornton for her help with this review.

Disclosure Statement : The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.

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Handbook of Australian School Psychology pp 65–80 Cite as

Child and Adolescent Development

• Rosalyn H. Shute 3 &
• John D. Hogan 4  
• First Online: 28 January 2017

11k Accesses

For school psychologists, understanding how children and adolescents develop and learn forms a backdrop to their everyday work, but the many new ‘facts’ shown by empirical studies can be difficult to absorb; nor do they make sense unless brought together within theoretical frameworks that help to guide practice. In this chapter, we explore the idea that child and adolescent development is a moveable feast, across both time and place. This is aimed at providing a helpful perspective for considering the many texts and papers that do focus on ‘facts’. We outline how our understanding of children’s development has evolved as various schools of thought have emerged. While many of the traditional theories continue to provide useful educational, remedial and therapeutic frameworks, there is also a need to take a more critical approach that supports multiple interpretations of human activity and development. With this in mind, we re-visit the idea of norms and milestones, consider the importance of context, reflect on some implications of psychology’s current biological zeitgeist and note a growing movement promoting the idea that we should be listening more seriously to children’s own voices.

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Rosalyn H. Shute

St John’s University, Jamaica, NY, USA

John D. Hogan

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Shute, R.H., Hogan, J.D. (2017). Child and Adolescent Development. In: Thielking, M., Terjesen, M. (eds) Handbook of Australian School Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45166-4_4

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Research priorities for child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviours: an international perspective using a twin-panel Delphi procedure

• Lauren Gillis 1 ,
• Grant Tomkinson 1 ,
• Timothy Olds 1 ,
• Carla Moreira 2 ,
• Candice Christie 3 ,
• Claudio Nigg 4 ,
• Ester Cerin 5 ,
• Esther Van Sluijs 6 ,
• Gareth Stratton 7 ,
• Ian Janssen 8 ,
• Jeremy Dorovolomo 9 ,
• John J Reilly 10 ,
• Jorge Mota 2 ,
• Kashef Zayed 11 ,
• Kent Kawalski 12 ,
• Lars Bo Andersen 13 ,
• Manuel Carrizosa 14 ,
• Mark Tremblay 15 ,
• Michael Chia 16 ,
• Mike Hamlin 17 ,
• Non Eleri Thomas 18 ,
• Ralph Maddison 19 ,
• Stuart Biddle 20 ,
• Trish Gorely 21 ,
• Vincent Onywera 22 &
• Willem Van Mechelen 23  

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity volume  10 , Article number:  112 ( 2013 ) Cite this article

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The quantity and quality of studies in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour have rapidly increased, but research directions are often pursued in a reactive and uncoordinated manner.

To arrive at an international consensus on research priorities in the area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

Two independent panels, each consisting of 12 experts, undertook three rounds of a Delphi methodology. The Delphi methodology required experts to anonymously answer questions put forward by the researchers with feedback provided between each round.

The primary outcome of the study was a ranked set of 29 research priorities that aimed to be applicable for the next 10 years. The top three ranked priorities were: developing effective and sustainable interventions to increase children’s physical activity long-term; policy and/or environmental change and their influence on children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour; and prospective, longitudinal studies of the independent effects of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on health.

Conclusions

These research priorities can help to guide decisions on future research directions.

Recent research has shown that both physical activity and sedentary behaviour are associated with a wide range of current and future health outcomes [ 1 – 3 ]. In fact, physical activity and sedentary behaviour are two independent and not mutually exclusive behaviours with different effects on health outcomes [ 4 ]. In the short term, physical activity has been shown to be moderately and positively associated with bone health, aerobic fitness, blood lipid levels, self-esteem, mental activity and fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents [ 1 – 3 , 5 ]. In the long term, both physical activity and sedentary behaviour have been identified as major, independent, modifiable risk factors for mortality and morbidity from many chronic, non-communicable and potentially preventable diseases [ 6 – 9 ]. New evidence also suggests that the relation between sedentary behaviour and all-cause end cardiovascular disease mortality is independent of physical activity levels [ 7 ].

Chronic diseases place a large economic burden on health services and impose significant costs on society (e.g. premature death, underappreciated economic effects and greater reliance on treatment) [ 8 ]. Although the ill effects of chronic disease largely manifest in adulthood, it is increasingly understood that the development typically begins in childhood or adolescence [ 9 ]. Therefore, physical activity levels and sedentary behaviour performed in the early years could potentially influence the development of disease later on in life.

At present, a large quantity of research is being conducted into the physical activity and sedentary behaviour of children, yet the research community remains challenged to provide a solid evidence base [ 10 ]. This is in part due to a lack of international research collaboration and a high degree of study repetition. The aim of this study therefore was to arrive at a set of international research priorities for physical activity and sedentary behaviour to guide more meaningful and focussed research. Specifically, this study aimed to answer the following research question: “What are the most important international research issues for the next 10 years in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour?” Agreement on research priorities may help to inform evidence-based policy, guide funding allocation, and direct research options for postgraduate students [ 11 , 12 ].

Existing literature

To identify existing evidence in this area, a systematic review of the English and non-English literature was performed using the following search terms: physical activit* OR motor activity (MeSH) OR sedentary behavio* AND child* OR adolescen* OR youth* AND research priorit* OR research agenda* OR research issue*. The databases PsychINFO (1887–), SPORTDiscus (1949–), Cochrane (1992–), CINAHL (1937–), ERIC (1966–) and PubMed (1950–) were searched in May 2012. Additional studies were also identified by contacting experts, Google searching and identifying potential studies in the reference lists of identified studies. Only four previously published papers that arrived at research priorities in child physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour were identified [ 11 , 13 – 15 ]. A working paper by Bull et al. [ 11 ] identified research priorities in physical activity with a focus on low to middle income countries. Evenson and Mota [ 13 ] highlighted research on the determinants and outcomes of physical activity and made recommendations for future study designs. Mountjoy et al. [ 15 ] identified existing gaps in physical activity research for children, with a focus on the need for greater collaboration between sport and existing programmes. The final study by Fulton et al. [ 14 ] had two aims. Firstly, the study aimed to review the current knowledge of existing methods for assessing physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Secondly, on the basis of this, the study aimed to set research priorities on the use of reliable and valid measurement tools to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children aged 2–5 years.

While these studies were valuable contributions, they also had many limitations, including unsystematic participant selection, unstructured data collection procedures, and limited reporting on the process followed to arrive at the research priorities. Furthermore, the participants involved in the decision-making processes did not always represent the broader community of researchers, either from a geographical or institutional point of view. In addition, the anonymity of participants was not maintained during the consensus process. These limitations warranted a further study with an aim to arrive at a set of research priorities by employing a structured and rigorous methodology and improving reporting quality.

Methodology

Ethical approval for all aspects of the methodology was granted by the University of South Australia Human Research Ethics Committee in September 2011.

This study employed a Delphi procedure. This procedure is appropriate for research questions which cannot be answered with complete certainty, but rather by the subjective opinion of a collective group of informed experts [ 16 ]. It allowed systematic refinement of the experts’ opinions over the course of several rounds while minimising confounding factors present in other group response methods [ 17 – 20 ].

The experts who participated in the Delphi procedure were identified by a 3–step procedure. Firstly, the lead study investigators independently recommended known researchers for the study. Secondly, a lengthy and extensive search was carried out to identify potential researchers from every world region and sub-region. Identifying potential experts from these regions involved searching for staff of relevant international bodies, government departments, non-government organisations, professional organisations and educational institutions. Thirdly, following email communication with the experts who have previously been identified, new experts were referred to the study investigators.

Once participants had been identified, it was important to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the study. Thus they were assessed using pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. To be eligible, a researcher had to be an author of at least one peer-reviewed scientific publication on the physical activity or sedentary behaviour of children or adolescents, and must hold (at the time of selection) a senior position in their organisation. In addition, the experts were deliberately chosen to give geographical coverage of every world region and sub-region. Relevant information was gathered from staff homepages, Scopus author searches, the Journal and Author Name Estimator ( http://www.biosemantics.org/jane/ ) and other relevant Internet searches to ascertain whether a researcher met these criteria.

Forty-six eligible experts were invited to participate, with each sent information and consent forms via email. As a whole, these participants were representative of every region and sub-region. Of those invited, 20 did not respond to the invitation, two declined to participate, and 24 returned signed consent forms. An outline of this process is illustrated in Figure  1 .

Purposive sampling process undertaken.

The 24 participating experts (17 male and 7 female) were randomly allocated to either Panel A or Panel B and assigned identification code names accordingly. Furthermore the following major institution types were represented by the selected experts; educational institutions, government organisations, non-government organisations, professional organisations and community organisations.

The Delphi procedure used three rounds [ 21 ], each consisting of data collection, data analysis and controlled feedback. The survey was administered entirely online using a Survey Gizmo questionnaire. A novel feature of this study was the use of two parallel panels of experts. The existence of an alternate panel was only made known to the participants in Round 3, when each panel was asked to rank the priorities of the other panel. This allowed quantitative comparisons to be made between each panel’s rankings of each research issue and cross-validated the rankings of research priorities developed by each panel.

To commence each round, experts were sent an email containing a direct link to the online questionnaire. Briefly, Round 1 required each expert to answer the question “What are the five most important research issues for the next 10 years in the area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour?” Each expert put forward five research issues which they believed were priorities in the area. They also provided a brief description of each issue and reasons why they believed the issue to be a priority. The three study investigators reviewed all issues that were provided by each panel, with common issues combined into a single issue. The experts were then fed back their panel’s list of research issues and asked to ensure that the five research issues they provided were accurately represented.

Round 2 then asked experts to “review the research issues put forward in Round 1 and rate how important they believe each issue is for global research in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour”. Experts rated each research issue independently using a 5-point Likert scale (5 = very important, 4 = important, 3 = moderately important, 2 = of little importance and 1 = unimportant). The three study investigators then short-listed each panel’s research issues to 20 according to those with highest mean Likert scale ratings. Following this, the top 20 research issues from each panel were fed back to the experts of the relevant panels.

In Round 3, experts were first asked to “rank their panel’s top 20 research issues in order of perceived international importance in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour over the next 10 years”. The experts were then similarly asked to rank the alternate panel’s top 20 research priorities. The data analysis procedure was as follows. Firstly, the overall sum of each panel’s rankings was calculated for Panel A and Panel B’s top 20 research issues. Secondly, the two lists of research issues were combined with common issues provided by both panels merged. This resulted in 29 unique issues. Thirdly, the experts’ individual rankings for each research issue were summed. This allowed the issues to be ranked according to the sum of Panel A and Panel B’s overall rankings for each issue. Intra-panel agreement was quantified using Spearman’s rho by creating a matrix to compare individuals’ rankings to one another within the same panel. Inter-panel agreement was also quantified using Spearman’s rho to compare the overall sum and rank for each issue between panels.

Expert demographics

All 24 experts completed the three Delphi rounds. Data was collected on the 24 experts’ geographical distributions, institutional affiliations and years worked in the study area.

As a group, the 24 experts represented every geographical region and 12 sub-regions. This geographical distribution is illustrated in Figure  2 .

Geographical distributions of participating experts. The numbers indicate the number of participating experts from that region.

In terms of institutional affiliation, twenty-three experts acknowledged they were affiliated with an educational institution, eleven were affiliated with a professional organisation, six with an international organisation, six with a non-government organisation and four with a government organisation. It was noted that due to the nature of their work, experts were often affiliated with more than one institution type.

In regards to years worked in the study area, twelve experts had worked in for greater than 16 years, five had worked for 11 to 15 years, four had worked for 6 to10 years and three had worked for less than five years.

Results from Delphi rounds

In Round 1, each expert put forward five research issues. Collectively this provided a total of 120 issues across all 24 experts, with 60 for each panel. Following qualitative reduction of overlapping issues, 26 issues from Panel A and 34 issues from Panel B, were carried forward to Round 2. On reviewing the amended list, all exerts agreed that the issues they had raised were adequately represented.

From Round 2, the mean Likert-scale ratings were used to determine the top 20 issues for each panel. For Panel A, the mean Likert-scale ratings of the top 20 issues ranged from 3.5 to 5.0, with 18 of 20 issues having a median rating of >4.0 (“important”). For Panel B, the mean Likert-scale ratings of the top 20 issues ranged from 4.0 to 4.8, with all 20 research issues having a median rating of >4.0.

In Round 3, the 20 issues from Panel A and 20 issues from Panel B were qualitatively analysed to form one list. Eleven of each panel’s top 20 research issues were common to both panels and were therefore combined, with the remaining 18 issues (nine from each panel) unique. The resultant was a set of 29 unique research issues that were then ranked in order of importance by summing Panel A and Panel B’s rankings for each issue Table  1 .

There was only weak intra-panel agreement. The mean inter-individual rho ( ± 95% CI) was 0.20 ±0.05 for Panel A and 0.13 ±0.04 for Panel B. The average standard deviation of the rankings for individual issues was 5.1 (Panel A) and 5.3 (Panel B). When Panel B ranked Panel A’s issues, the correlation was very strong ( rho ± 95% CI: 0.79 ±0.17), and when Panel A ranked Panel B’s issues, the correlation was strong ( rho ± 95% CI: 0.52 ±0.31). Figures  3 and 4 clearly illustrate the correlations for each research issue.

Agreement between Panel A’s rankings and Panel B’s rankings of Panel A’s identified issues. The line shown is the identity line.

Agreement between Panel B’s rankings and Panel A’s rankings of Panel B’s identified issues. The line shown is the identity line.

Study outcomes

The primary outcome of this study was the development of 29 international research priorities in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. In order for the research priorities to be useful, it is important that they be neither too general nor too specific. The research priorities in this study appear broad enough to enable them to be transferable to researchers’ specific regions and contexts.

The final set of research priorities address a broad range of areas from epidemiology, determinants and correlates, through to intervention effectiveness and translational research. Of the 29 identified research priorities, ten related directly to translational research centred on intervention design and effectiveness. These focussed on specific behaviours (active transport, screen time, sport, physical education), settings (schools, communities, whole of population), or vehicles (mass advertising, policy). Translational research, centred on intervention design and effectiveness, can potentially guide governments and stakeholders to fund interventions that are the most effective, sustainable and transferable for changing behaviours [ 7 ]. This is important because to date, the research community has not been very successful at developing interventions for children and adolescents that bring about long-term and sustained change in health behaviours [ 10 ]. In addition, little attention has been given to the importance of the intervention setting and establishing what works in what situation and with whom [ 22 ].

Nine of the research priorities had a focus on capturing and quantifying the health benefits of engaging in physical activity and limiting sedentary behaviour, These research priorities were concerned with the impact of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on obesity, cognition, and general health and well being, and on describing behavioural patterns (across the day or the life-course or in specific populations such as pre-school children). Epidemiological research was considered important to address the cause, distribution and patterns of childhood physical activity and sedentary behaviour on current and future health [ 2 , 6 , 9 , 23 ].

Six research issues related to determinants and correlates research such as psychosocial and cultural/parental factors, the impact of technology, and the importance of enjoyment and lifestyle in general. Research that focuses on the determinants and correlates of behaviours is important. This is because while many correlates appear to be intuitively obvious, at present they have mixed support from high quality research [ 3 ].

Four issues did not fit into the aforementioned categories. They were related to the theory of behaviour change, injury prevention, measurement of behaviours and the physical education in culture of movement. Objective measurement of behaviours was ranked highly and is thought to be a “necessary first step for conducting meaningful epidemiological surveillance, public health research and intervention research” [ 14 ] p.124.

Strengths and limitations

Unlike previously identified priority reports [ 11 , 13 – 15 ] this study employed a Delphi method to arrive at a more valid set of research priorities. Strengths related to the Delphi method include participant blinding, iterative data collection and controlled feedback between rounds. For example, the identities and responses of the experts were anonymised so that the identified research priorities could not be dominated by certain individuals [ 24 ]. Furthermore, the provision of controlled feedback allowed experts to individually consider their views in light of their panel’s collective opinion.

Other strengths related to the methodology were the use of criterion and purposive sampling methods. This procedure meant that all participants held a senior position in their respective organisations and had published in the study area. In addition, experts collectively represented every major world region and a wide range of discipline areas, affiliations and interests. This approach meant that the identified research issues were more likely to reflect the most important physical activity and sedentary behaviour issues facing the children and adolescents worldwide.

A novel component of this study was split-panel approach, which allowed comparisons to be made between the rankings given by the two expert panels. The experts from each panel were taken from the same population, given the same study information, answered identical online questionnaires and participated simultaneously and independently. One can therefore be confident that comparing the Round 3 rankings of Panel A and Panel B experts would provide valid measures of inter-panel agreement.

The weak intra-panel agreement was weak, which is likely a reflection of the natural variation of individual’s opinions and areas of interest within the broad study area. This weak agreement could also highlight the advantages of the methodology which retained anonymity and used an online mode of data collection. There were fewer pressures to conform to others opinions due to decreased likelihood of peer dominance and status. Evidence to reinforce confidence in the results is the strong to very strong (rho = 0.52–0.79) inter-panel agreement. While experts were invited from every United Nations sub-region (United Nations 2011), no experts from the following sub-regions took part: Southern Africa, Middle Africa, Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Australia, Central Asia and Western Asia. This was significant because many of these sub-regions are heavily involved in physical activity and sedentary behaviour research. Consequently, caution should be applied when recommending that the identified research priorities truly provide a global perspective. Nonetheless, these research priorities provide an international context from which priorities at the regional, national and local levels can be developed.

In addition the priorities were set for the broad area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Due to the generality of this topic, it may be that the research priorities are not relevant when conducting research into minority populations. For example, children and adolescents with disabilities may warrant different research issues not identified in this study.

Implications for research

We hope that the identification of a set of ranked research priorities may contribute to more co-ordinated international research. For example, research priorities can help inform post-graduate students regarding where the current evidence gaps exist. This may be especially helpful for researchers who reside in less developed or marginalised research regions. In addition, encouraging more guided research can help to conceptualise how findings can be used as a basis for policy decisions. Lastly, research priorities can help to direct valuable funding into priority areas and away from studies on over-researched or lower priority topics.

This study engaged two panels of study experts in a three-round Delphi communication procedure. The outcome of this procedure was the identification of a ranked set of 29 research priorities in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. For example, the top three ranked priorities were: developing effective and sustainable interventions to increase children’s physical activity long-term; policy and/or environmental change and their influence on children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour; and prospective, longitudinal studies of the independent effects of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on health. We hope these research priorities will help inform the spectrum of future studies undertaken, guide post-graduate study choices, guide allocation of funding to priority areas and assist with policy decisions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Health and Use of Time Group at the University of South Australia.

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Health and Use of Time (HUT) Group, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Lauren Gillis, Grant Tomkinson & Timothy Olds

Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Carla Moreira & Jorge Mota

Ergonomics Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Candice Christie

Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

Claudio Nigg

Institute of Human Performance, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Ester Cerin

MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK

Esther Van Sluijs

The Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Gareth Stratton

School of Physical and Health Education, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Ian Janssen

University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji, Islands

Jeremy Dorovolomo

Physical Activity for Health Research Group, School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Jordanhill, Glasgow, UK

John J Reilly

Department of Physical Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Kashef Zayed

Physical and Health Education and Department of Psychology, School of Exercise Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

Kent Kawalski

Center for Research in Childhood Health, Institute of Sport Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 5230, Denmark

Lars Bo Andersen

Education Faculty, University of Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, Badajoz, Spain

Manuel Carrizosa

Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

Mark Tremblay

Physical Education & Sports Science, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Michael Chia

Department of Social Science, Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand

Mike Hamlin

Centre for Children and Young People's Health and Well-Being, School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Non Eleri Thomas

Clinical Trials Research Unit, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

Ralph Maddison

School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK

Stuart Biddle

Institute of Youth Sport, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE, 11 3TU, UK

Trish Gorely

Department of Exercise, Kenyatta University, Recreation and Sport Science, Nairobi, Kenya

Vincent Onywera

Department of Public & Occupational Health, EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Willem Van Mechelen

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The study was conceived by GT and TO. LG was primarily responsible for conducting the participant selection process and the three rounds of data collection. LG, GT and TO were each involved in data analysis. LG produced the first draft of the paper with all other authors providing sections and critically reviewing the paper. All authors approved submission.

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Gillis, L., Tomkinson, G., Olds, T. et al. Research priorities for child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviours: an international perspective using a twin-panel Delphi procedure. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 10 , 112 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-112

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-112

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• Early education and development "Early Education and Development (EE&D) is a multi-disciplinary professional journal that publishes primarily empirical research on the links between early childhood education and children's development from birth to age 8. It is international in scope and designed to emphasize the implications of research and solid scientific information for practice and policy. EE&D is designed for researchers and practitioners involved in preschool and education services for children and their families."
• Journal of educational psychology "The main purpose of the Journal of Educational Psychology® is to publish original, primary psychological research pertaining to education across all ages and educational levels. A secondary purpose of the Journal is the occasional publication of exceptionally important theoretical and review articles that are pertinent to educational psychology.
• Journal of research in childhood education : JRCE "The Journal of Research in Childhood Education, a publication of the Association for Childhood Education International, features articles that advance knowledge and theory of the education of children, infancy through early adolescence."
• New directions for child and adolescent development "New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development is a quarterly thematic multidisciplinary journal dedicated to new perspective and scholarship in the field of child and adolescent development. Each issue/volume in the series is a completely self-contained, fully indexed edited collection of articles focusing on one specific topic."
• Topics in early childhood special education "Topics in Early Childhood Special Education (TECSE) focuses on information that will improve the lives of young children with special needs and their families. The practical nature of this journal helps professionals improve service delivery systems for preschool children with special needs."
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Ecological Influences on Child and Adolescent Development: Evidence from a Philippine Birth Cohort

The largest number of children and young people in history are alive today, so the costs of them failing to realise their potential for development are high. Most live in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs), where they are vulnerable to risks that may compromise their development. Yet many risk factors in LLMICs are not well understood. Moreover, recent studies suggest that in addition to the critical first 1,000 days there are several key periods of development in later childhood and adolescence which have received comparatively little research attention. This work responds to the gaps in the evidence, examining the influence of exposure to risks in the physical and social environment on health, education and development outcomes in a birth cohort of children from the Philippines. The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the theoretical and empirical evidence on the risks children face in LLMICs as well as a description of the Philippine country context and the birth cohort. The second chapter tests the associations between infant exposure to sanitation risks and subsequent school survival. The third chapter investigates the effects of housing instability in early to middle childhood on cognitive performance at 11 years of age. And, the fourth chapter examines the links between forms of social marginalisation and adolescent mental health and wellbeing. This work’s findings suggest infant exposure to faecal contamination in the home environment shortens the overall length of time children later spend at school. Preprimary-school age children appear to be at risk of developmental deficits and/or delays as a result of changes to their neighbourhood environment. And, adolescents who are excluded or become disengaged from the important socialising institutions of school and the workplace are at increased risk from developing mental disorders, while among older teens the protective effects associated with being in employment are greater than those linked to being in education.

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Psychology Research Guide

Child & adolescent development.

“Child development”, or “child and adolescent development” refers to the process of growth and maturation of the human individual from conception to adulthood. The term “adolescence” has particular connotations in particular cultural and social contexts. Child & Adolescent Psychology focuses on understanding the physical, social, psychological, and cognitive needs of young human beings. You can read more about the focus of Child & Adolescent Development on the American Psychological Association's Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology website This link opens in a new window . To find ideas for paper/research topics within child & adolescent development, visit these sites:

APA Psychology Topics This link opens in a new window (Try Bullying; Children; Education; Kids & the Media; Learning & Memory; Parenting; Teens)

Child & Adolescent Development Databases

Research in child & adolescent psychology utilizes core psychology resources, as well as resources in child & family development and sociology. You may find it helpful to search the following databases for your child & adolescent development topics or research questions, in addition to the core resources listed on the home page.

Child & Adolescent Development Subject Headings

You may find it helpful to take advantage of predefined subjects or subject headings in Shapiro Databases. These subjects are applied to articles and books by expert catalogers to help you find materials on your topic.

• Learn more about Subject Searching

Consider using databases to perform subject searches, or incorporating words from applicable subjects into your keyword searches. Here are some social psychology subjects to consider:

• adopted children
• Attachment Theory
• child abuse
• child behavior
• children of alcoholics
• cognitive development
• developmental stages
• early childhood development
• emotional development
• family relations
• middle school/junior high school/high school students
• parent child relations
• peer pressure
• personality

Child & Adolescent Development Organization Websites

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) This link opens in a new window A national professional medical association dedicated to treating and improving the quality of life for children, adolescents, and families affected by mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders.
• Child & Adolescent Development course module (UNHCR) This link opens in a new window This Resource Pack published by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees' Action for the Rights of Children (ARC) is a training module for those working with children and teen refugees. It covers major areas of child development acknowledging that " the concept of childhood is understood differently in different cultural and social contexts."
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) This link opens in a new window NICHD’s mission is to lead research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.
• Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology (APA Division) This link opens in a new window The Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is Division 53 of the American Psychological Association. Its purpose is to encourage the development and advancement of clinical child and adolescent psychology through integration of its scientific and professional aspects.
• Child Welfare Information Gateway - Understanding Adolescent Development This link opens in a new window United States Health & Human Services Children's Bureau Child Welfare Information Gateway has extensive resources on child & adolescent development. This link leads to their "Understanding Adolescent Development" resources page.
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Investing in Botswana's Teacher Workforce

Botswana will need to invest in human capital and strengthen its skills base to transition into a knowledge-based economy. However, low foundational learning levels remain a key challenge for the education sector.   While Botswana has invested heavily in teacher supply, teacher deployment has not always reflected school-level teacher needs. The…

Research on Child Migration and Displacement in Latin America and the Caribbean

Although migration has been a longstanding fact of life in Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of children affected by migration, including both children migrating and residing in host communities, is increasing. Even where their needs are considered, too often children’s own perspectives are ignored. However, previous studies show that…

Youth, Protests and the Polycrisis

Youth, Protests and the Polycrisis  delves into this transformative potential of youth protests, while cautioning about the risks. Although many analyses exist on specific youth protests, fewer studies have global coverage. This paper combines quantitative research on protests with qualitative insights, including from young people themselves, and…, Youth activism often stems from a perception of marginalization, with diverse political, environmental, economic and social issues triggering protests. Protests on global issues, such as against climate change or racism, including through transnational youth-led movements, have increased.  , Young people help to diversify protest tactics and bridge online and offline activism, Digital technologies and platforms have been increasingly used by youth, bringing innovation to protests, fostering inclusivity and lowering the costs of organizing movements, though not without risks. Online mobilization may aggravate digital divides, and is also subject to surveillance, harassment and repression.   , Youth participation can contribute to more peaceful and inclusive activism, but even non-violent action faces preemptive repression, Most protests involving youth are peaceful, contradicting a misperception that young people are violent and unruly. Additionally, protests with youth participation are more inclusive and larger. At the same time, governments are more prone to repress mass protests preemptively and violently when they involve youth. , Youth participation contributes to protest impact and social change, but this does not necessarily produce direct gains for young people, Young people’s participation in protests means less violent, larger, more inclusive and more innovative campaigns, and these elements contribute to higher impact. Mass protests where young people are on the front lines are more likely to be effective and to achieve positive outcomes in their aftermath. On the other hand, even when mass protests…, U N I C E F I N N O C E N T I G L O B A L O F F I C E O F R E S E A R C H A N D F O R E S I G H T M A R C H 2 0 2 4 Youth, Protests and the Polycrisis This document is interactive and designed for digital viewing. Please consider the environment and refrain from printing. ContentsSynopsis 3 Introduction 5 1. Emerging trends in youth protests…

Early Childhood Education Systems in 15 Pacific Island Countries and Territories

Early childhood education (ECE) is becoming a global policy priority, especially in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) where there is commitment to invest in the youngest learners. Building on system-level mappings in 2015 and 2017, this report delves into the status of ECE systems in the Pacific region as of 2022. Based on a…

A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood

Reports and briefs available for baseline (2017), Round 2 (2018), Round 3 (2019) and Round 4 (2021) surveys. “Ujana Salama” (‘Safe Youth’ in Swahili) is a cash plus programme targeting adolescents in households receiving cash transfers under the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) programme. Implemented by the…, Document cover Baseline report (April 2018), This report presents the evaluation design and baseline findings from a 24-month, mixed methods study to provide evidence on the potential for an additional plus component targeted to youth that is layered on top of the Government of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net to improve future economic opportunities for youth and facilitate their…, Document cover Round 2 (Midline) report (2020), This report provides midline findings from the impact evaluation of a cash plus model targeting youth in households receiving the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with technical assistance of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and UNICEF Tanzania, the…, Document cover Round 3 report (2020), “Ujana Salama” (‘Safe Youth’ in Swahili) is a cash plus programme targeting adolescents in households receiving the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with technical assistance of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and UNICEF Tanzania, the ‘plus’…, Document cover Round 4 report (2024), This mixed-methods impact evaluation examines the impacts of “Ujana Salama” (‘Safe Youth’ in Swahili) which is a cash plus programme targeting adolescents in households receiving cash transfers under the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) programme. Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with…, A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood:Baseline Report Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) UNICEF Tanzania UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti Economic Development Initiatives (EDI) April 2018 The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are…

The Impact of Valor Criança

The Government of Angola and its Development Partners developed and implemented Apoio à Protecção Social – APROSOC (‘Strengthening and expanding social protection to the vulnerable population in Angola’) between 2014 and 2022 as a first step towards establishing a national social protection system. A key component of the programme, Valor Criança,…

The Impact of the Cash Transfer Intervention in the Commune of Nsélé in Kinshasa

In an effort to mitigate the negative socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 containment measures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UNICEF and the World Food Programme initiated a cash transfer programme in the peri-urban commune of Nsélé, near Kinshasa, the capital of DRC. The intervention reached about 23,000 households in the…

Mitigating the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 with a cash transfer in peri-urban Kinshasa

Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World

Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World is the latest edition of the Global Outlook, a series of reports produced each year by UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, which look to the key trends affecting children and young people over the following 12 months and beyond., As we enter 2024, the world stands at a pivotal juncture. We can choose a path marked by increased global collaboration – a path that embraces innovation, knowledge sharing, policy transfer, and equitable growth. Or, there's a different course that could be taken, one which might entail less unity and a more protectionist approach, potentially…, 1. Geopolitical shifts and the risk of conflict may threaten children’s survival and well-being – but avenues for accountability and cooperation hold promise., In 2024, major powers will continue competing to expand their military, political, economic, and technological influence globally, including within multilateral institutions. Meanwhile, small and middle powers, including many in the Global South, are distancing themselves from confrontation between the major powers by forging new, flexible…, 2. Economic fragmentation threatens families’ livelihoods, children’s development and youth employment – but economic solidarity, market collaboration and investing in future skills can safeguard children’s rights and futures., Economic fragmentation, often driven by geopolitical interests and strategic considerations, is projected to widen disparities between nations in 2024. This unravelling of global economic integration threatens to undermine years of prosperity, progress, and innovation. It also adds fiscal pressure at a time when child poverty is rising in many…, 3. A fragmented multilateral system is not delivering on key issues for children – but it has a chance to reset its course in 2024 through global governance and financing reforms., The year 2024 will be pivotal for addressing a fragmented multilateral system that is failing on issues such as peace, security, climate change, financing for developing countries and the enforcement of normative standards – all of which can have an impact on children and their rights. Many countries, especially those in the Global South, believe…, 4. Developing economies still face structural inequities in the international financial architecture, limiting their ability to invest in children – but reforms to lending approaches and new technologies offer hope., Structural inequities in international financing will continue to limit developing countries’ investments in children in 2024. Excessive debt burdens, high remittance costs, overreliance on unpredictable economic monetary policies, and lack of voice in financial governance penalize poorer states. Debt crises triggered by these factors hurt…, 5. Global democracy will face unprecedented risks presented by disinformation and higher levels of political violence – but positive forces, including those led by children and youth, may still reverse the democratic decline., Democratic backsliding and youth dissatisfaction with democracy have been unfolding for years. But in 2024, as many nations face critical elections, two concerning trends emerge. First, advances in the digital technology for large language models and generative AI have introduced dangerous new disinformation capabilities that can create convincing…, 6. Fast-tracking transition to green energy is reshaping critical mineral and labour markets – if managed responsibly, cooperatively and justly, it can benefit children., In 2024, the accelerated transition to green energy will continue. This transition will be driven by volatility in energy markets, growth in the deployment of clean energy technology and policy imperatives like the development of new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). A faster shift to green energy brings significant benefits to children…, 7. El Niño, mosquito-borne diseases and water scarcity threaten children’s health and well-being – but greater collaboration, holistic programming and technological innovation can mitigate the negative impacts and protect children., Throughout 2024, climate change will continue to pose many threats to children’s health and nutrition. Three key forces stand out: the continuation of El Niño; the rise in outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases due to climate change; and water scarcity. The 2024 El Niño could be even hotter and more dangerous to people and the planet than in 2023.…, 8. Potential impacts of unchecked technologies spark fear and concern for children’s well-being – but proactive policy and global digital cooperation can place children at the centre of responsible design and regulation., The digital environment continues to shape children’s lives. Advances such as artificial intelligence (AI) bring new opportunities for children's learning, health care and development. Because new technology also poses risks for children, striking a regulatory balance will be a 2024 priority for three main reasons: First, apprehension about the…, Prospects for Children: Cooperation in a Fragmented World 2 0 2 4 G L O B A L O U T L O O K This document is interactive and designed for digital viewing. Please consider the environment and refrain from printing. Eight trends for 2024 Geopolitical shifts and the risk of conflict Economic fragmentation A fragmented multilateral system Structural…

Data Must Speak: Chad

The Chadian education system faces many challenges. It is therefore important to understand which resources and contextual factors are associated with good academic performance in Chad. By merging and analyzing existing administrative databases in Chad, this report makes it possible to identify important associations between school inputs and…

Data Must Speak: United Republic of Tanzania

To improve the quality and relevance of basic education in Mainland Tanzania, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) is interested in enhancing data usage and access in the country in order to develop, implement, and monitor evidence-based policies, plans and strategies for primary education. By merging and analyzing existing…

Data Must Speak: Brazil

Despite several efforts to strengthen its education system, the State of Maranhão in Brazil continues to face challenges in equitably improving student learning outcomes. By bringing together and analyzing existing administrative datasets in Maranhão, Brazil, this report helps identify important associations between school factors and educational…

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• Guidelines on gender...

Guidelines on gender related treatment flouted standards and overlooked poor evidence, finds Cass review

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Gender medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations. Here is how we strengthen services

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“Medication is binary, but gender expressions are often not”—the Hilary Cass interview

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Developing a new NHS service for young people with gender dysphoria or incongruence has been a “phenomenal challenge,” says the paediatrician charged with the task, not least because of poor data on long term outcomes of treatment. Clare Dyer reports

Clinical guidelines used widely around the world to treat children and adolescents who raise issues about their gender were developed in breach of international standards on guideline development, a review set up by NHS England has concluded. 1

The review, chaired by Hilary Cass, past president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, calls for far reaching changes to the way children and adolescents with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence are treated. In an interim report in 2022 it recommended that these young people be brought within the mainstream NHS and treated by multidisciplinary teams that would look at them holistically, providing psychosocial interventions where needed. 2

The review commissioned the University of York to research international practice and guidelines in the field. Cass noted, “The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) has been highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York’s appraisal to lack developmental rigour and transparency.” 3

In its final report, published this week, Cass’s review pointed out that although most of the guidelines described insufficient evidence about the risks and benefits of medical treatment “many then went on to cite this same evidence to recommend medical treatment.”

The research carried out by York University, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood , found that the evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones in young people with gender related distress was wholly inadequate, making it impossible to gauge their effectiveness or their effects on mental and physical health. 4 5 6 7 “No conclusions can be drawn about the impact on gender dysphoria, mental and psychosocial health, or cognitive development,” the research concluded.

Similarly, evidence on key outcomes, such as body satisfaction, psychosocial and cognitive outcomes, fertility, bone health, and cardiometabolic effects, was lacking or inconsistent. The research also found that there was no consensus on who should be involved in providing psychosocial support or on whether provision for young children should be different from that for teenagers. And there was virtually no guidance on how best to support young people who have not yet reached puberty or those whose identity is non-binary.

Creating a new NHS service to transform the treatment of young people with gender issues has proved a “phenomenal challenge,” Cass’s report said. The previous sole provider of such services in the NHS, the gender identity development service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London, was closed down after the Cass review’s interim finding that it was “not a safe or viable long term option.” 8

The first two regional centres, one in London and one in the North West, got under way this month after a year’s delay, the first step in commissioning a network of regional services around England. Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children will lead the London service, in partnership with Evelina London Children’s Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, while Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool will host the northern service, along with the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

But the development of the new service has been bedevilled by recruitment and training difficulties. Not only has the transgender issue become what the review describes as a “highly emotive and politicised arena” for clinicians who would work in it; the review has also uncovered a weak evidence base for the treatments previously used and a lack of data on long term outcomes among patients, making it difficult to provide the information needed to secure properly informed consent.

The politicisation of the debate “coupled with concerns about the weakness of the evidence base and a lack of professional guidance has impacted the ability of the new services to recruit the appropriate multidisciplinary workforce,” notes the final report. It found a “general lack of confidence among the wider workforce to engage with gender questioning children and adolescents.”

Limited workforce must be shared

The review recommends that services should not be located solely in tertiary centres such as Great Ormond Street and Alder Hey but that “a much broader based service model is needed with a flexible workforce working across a regional footprint in partnership with designated local specialist services.” It adds, “There is a finite workforce available to serve the needs of this population and the wider population of young people with complex needs, therefore partnerships with local services must be developed so that workforce can be shared across the network without destabilising local services.”

The review proposes that a small number of secondary services within existing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and paediatric services would be designated local specialist services in each area, which would increase the available workforce.

In the early 2000s most patients referred to GIDS were a small number of young people who were questioning the male gender assigned to them at birth. But by 2014 the caseload had expanded and changed dramatically, and most were birth registered girls whose gender dysphoria had begun in their early teens. Many had other problems, such as autism, ADHD, or other mental health diagnoses or adverse childhood experiences.

GIDS ran an early intervention study from 2011 to 2014 in which young people were given puberty blockers—drugs to pause sexual development and supposedly “give them time to think” about what should happen next. From 2014 the provision of puberty blockers was no longer a research project but became routine clinical practice, the rationale for which was “unclear,” the review found. The research, which was not published in preprint until December 2020, found no statistically significant changes in gender dysphoria or mental health outcomes. 9 Cass’s review notes that blocking the release of sex hormones “could have a range of unintended and as yet unidentified consequences.”

Almost all the young people given puberty blockers went on to take masculinising or feminising hormones. But the review concludes that “the evidence for the indicated uses of puberty blockers and masculinising/feminising hormones in adolescents [is] unproven and benefits/harms are unknown.” There was also “a failure to systematically consider how psychosocial interventions should be used and to research their efficacy.”

Follow-up vital

The review recommends a “full programme of research that looks at the characteristics, interventions, and outcomes of every young person presenting to the NHS gender services.” Puberty blockers should be available only under a research protocol, and the review suggests caution in prescribing masculinising or feminising hormones from age 16 and recommends that there should be a “clear rationale” for not waiting till 18.

Swedish and Finnish guidelines, which are evidence based, suggest a more cautious approach to the use of puberty blockers, said Cass. 10 “I can’t think of another area of paediatric care where we give young people a potentially irreversible treatment and have no idea what happens to them in adulthood,” she said in an interview with The BMJ ’s editor in chief, Kamran Abbasi. 11

The University of York was commissioned to carry out a research study interviewing young adults, many of whom had had access to a medical pathway, involving hormone treatment, which they said “enabled them to lead the lives they wanted,” the study found. “Others explored equally empowering options, such as social transitioning and more fluid and non-binary expressions of gender.”

Cass’s review recommends an assessment process and individualised care plan, with the aim of helping young people thrive and achieve their life goals. “For the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way to achieve this,” says the review. “For those young people for whom a medical pathway is clinically indicated, it is not enough to provide this in the absence of addressing any wider mental health and/or psychosocially challenging problems such as family breakdown, barriers to participation in school life or social activities, bullying, and minority stress.”

• ↵ Cass H. Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: final report. April. Apr 2024. https://cass.independent-review.uk/?page_id=936
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• The Heat Is Turned Up: Focus on Climate…

The Heat Is Turned Up: Focus on Climate Solutions for Kids

Date posted:.

2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 is predicted to rank among the top five warmest years. Extreme heat at this scale can be a danger to not only the physical health of children, but also has impacts related to mental health and educational disruptions.

Around the world and in our Philadelphia community, we know the burden of extreme heat impacts some more than others. The Philadelphia Heat Vulnerability Index shows that some neighborhoods can have up to a 22 degrees Fahrenheit heat discrepancy on a given day. Heat “ amplifies the effects of systemic inequities in housing, neighborhood density, community infrastructure, and economic opportunity, contributing to an unequal burden of dangerous conditions for families from marginalized groups and with lower incomes .”

Climate change has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “ fundamental threat to human health ” and is a key driver behind increasing extreme heat. These links between the changing environment and human health drove me to serve as a delegate to the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in 2014 and 2015, where the historic Paris Agreement was signed. From this experience, I saw firsthand how clinicians have an opportunity to share perspectives not always represented at decision-making tables, especially those of children. This inspired me to go to medical school.

Now, as a pediatric resident , I see how children are impacted by increasing heat: from school closures to heat-related illness. I recently returned to the United Nations Climate Change negotiations ( COP28 ) to amplify the stories of my patients.

As we feel the heat, the pressure is mounting for action. Below, I share key takeaways from a recent working paper on extreme heat and child development from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child and review proposed solutions to address this issue locally and globally. By better understanding this topic and potential solutions, clinicians can serve as effective messengers on climate action for health.

The impact of extreme heat on children's health

Earlier this year, The Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment at The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University released a working paper entitled Extreme Heat Affects Early Childhood Development and Health . The paper reviews many ways children are uniquely vulnerable to heat, including:

Pregnancy: Heat stress on pregnancy can lead to preterm births, lower birth weights or increased rates of stillbirth.

Thermoregulation: The smaller size of infants and young kids means their bodies not only heat up quicker than adults, but also release less heat via sweating. They also rely on others to keep them safe—from getting them to a cooler place to offering appropriate hydration.

Nutrition: Children have higher nutrition and fluid requirements than adults. As extreme heat impacts food and water supplies through drought and agriculture, children suffer.

Disruptions in Education: Heat can contribute to “slower cognitive function and reduced concentration ability” which can impact students’ performance in school and contribute to learning challenges during childhood.

Sleep Quality: Extreme heat can disrupt the body’s natural cooling before sleep and contribute to poor quality sleep. Poor sleep during infancy and childhood may contribute to increased weight, emotional challenges and reduced problem-solving skills.

Mental Health: Extreme heat can activate the body’s stress response system, threatening healthy emotional regulation development. Extreme heat has also been associated with increased rates of violence, crimes, and conflict—which can have long-term consequences for a child’s mental health.

Here in Philadelphia, we see examples of these impacts with our patients. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America identified Philadelphia as one of the most challenging cities in the U.S. for people with asthma. Extreme heat contributes to worsening air quality and will only further exacerbate this challenge. Schools in Philadelphia close during extreme heat without adequate cooling systems in place. These disruptions in education can have lasting impacts on children. And, stemming from historically racist practices like red lining, we see that the burden of extreme heat disproportionately impacts some neighborhoods more than others, further exacerbating existing health disparities.

Approaches and Solutions to Address Extreme Heat and Support Family Health

Strategies to mitigate extreme heat will support the health and well-being of children. The working paper lays out a framework for us to shape these strategies through: (1) Immediate Actions, (2) Infrastructure Adaptations and (3) Addressing Root Causes. Solutions must also be multi-disciplinary and involve local community members. Examples include:

Partnerships with schools, after-school/summer programs, or sports can focus solutions to where children are spending their time during periods of extreme heat.

Urban planning and urban greening campaigns can increase canopy coverage and heat reduction across communities to safeguard against higher temperatures.

Cooling solutions including air conditioners, heat sinks or swamp coolers can be made more available through programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ( LIHEAP ). LIHEAP may also offer support for energy bills.

Multi-disciplinary heat action plans can strengthen community resilience in the wake of more frequent and severe extreme heat days.

Locally, several organizations are leading the way to advance discussions around climate and the connection to health. Last year, Perry World House hosted a Heat-Health Colloquium to discuss policies and offer recommendations to support resilience to extreme heat, including in health care by increasing clinician and patient knowledge regarding heat stress. Recognizing the urgency for multi-disciplinary solutions, Drexel University recently established the Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center to support ongoing research on the intersection of health, equity and climate change.

Extreme heat is a significant threat to the health of children, and we must consider a holistic and multi-faceted approach when crafting solutions. Clinicians are well-positioned to serve as advocates in this space given our unique lens into the multitude of ways that the environment impacts children's health. The heat is up and the time to act is now.

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