The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth

Posted by National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine on August 6, 2019

The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (the Academies) today released its latest report, The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth, containing comprehensive developmental science and a call to action to assess and reform our systems that work with adolescents.

The new report is the latest in a series by the Academies on the science of child and adolescent development begun in 2000 with the ground-breaking publication, From Neighborhoods to Neurons, on early childhood development with the goal of making public and accessible scientific information to inform state and federal policy and practice.

The report reviews the latest neuroscience and socio-behavioral science in language for non-scientists and offers thoughtful recommendations to reform systems that work with adolescents — health, education, child welfare and justice.

As a member of the committee that wrote the report, I learned a tremendous amount about adolescent developmental science and the critical need to apply that science to our public policies in the health, education, child welfare and justice systems. The report gives me a sense of urgency: given what we now know about adolescent development, the need to reform our systems to ensure familial supports and “do no harm” is critical.

Read the report: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25388/the-promise-of-adolescence-realizing-opportunity-for-all-youth

[Thank you to the Juvenile Law Center for making us aware of this resource.]