ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESEARCH, PROGRAMS, AND POLICIES

The basic process of adolescent development involves changing relation s between the individual and the multiple levels of the context within which the young person is embedded. Variation in the substance and ti ming of these relations promotes diversity in adolescence and represen ts sources of risk or protective factors across this life period. The key risk factors of the contempory American adolescent period are disc ussed. Behavioral risks involve drug, alcohol, and substance use and a buse; unsafe sex, teenage pregnancy, and teenage parenting; school und erachievement, failure, and dropout; and delinquency, crime, and viole nce. Poverty among youth exacerbates these risks. The features of yout h programs effective in preventing the actualization of risk or in pro moting positive adolescent development are discussed, as are the chara cteristics of public policies that may enhance the life chances of the diverse youth of America and the world.