482 Adolescent Health
(2000) also recommend establishing a task force on funding
to increase available funds and identify those areas of high
priority that are now most underfunded. As with other areas
of research, implementing this research agenda will require
strengthening the links between research and practice. Making
the results truly useful will necessitate closer and stronger
integration of research and policy.
SUMMARY
Social changes in the past half century have both expanded
the concept of adolescence and markedly altered the threats
to adolescent health. Biological changes in pubertal matu-
ration have lowered the age at which adolescence begins,
and economic and educational demands have expanded the
upper limits of adolescence. Increased access to weapons,
contraception, illegal substances, and motor vehicles,
combined with changing social attitudes and reduced adult
supervision (due to divorce and the increased proportion
of working parents) have worsened the overall health status
of contemporary American teenagers, compared with
those in the 1950s and with Americans in all other age
groups.
At least 80% of morbidity and mortality in adolescence is
behaviorally based and thus preventable or at least reducible.
Improving adolescent health will require increased knowl-
edge of effective prevention and treatment strategies, better
dissemination of such information, and the willingness to
make legislative and funding changes to enhance protective
factors and reduce injury or risks. Health is more than the ab-
sence of disease; it includes the enjoyment of oneself and of
life, together with the ready acceptance of personal and social
responsibilities. Raising healthy adolescents will ultimately
yield healthier and better adjusted adults.
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