Monday, April 28, 2008

Social Change and Adolescence

The following is excerpted from Robert Wm. Blum’s keynote address.

The origins of adolescence began at time of great change. In 1904, G. Stanley Hall coined the term “adolescence” because of the dramatic changes in the U.S. The industrial revolution led to higher values on education, a shift from farm to factory …

Social change is the norm today in much of the world: education, gender roles, global economy, instantaneous communication with the world, immigration and migration at a massive scale, democratization of political structures … This is the social context of many young people growing up in countries around the world.

Our new understanding of adolescence brings with it a new perspective of youth that views them not as the problem but as the possibility—the opportunity. Adolescence is a time of possibility and a time of opportunity.

To tap the potential as well to address the problems of youth, we need to view adolescence as nested in a wide set of social contexts, and we need to understand how they influence both health and morbidity.

Robert Wm. Blum, PhD, MD, MPH, is the William H. Gates Sr. Chair and Professor of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

No comments: