Over the past several decades, the field of adolescent health and devel- ment has undergone a profound and pervasive transformation in the kno- edge and understanding of young lives. Popular myths about adolescent- that they are hapless victims of raging hormones or risk-takers who see themselves as invulnerable - have been laid to rest. But even more imp- tant has been the emergence of a new, scientific perspective about this stage of life. It is a perspective that recognizes that adolescents are active parti- pants in the shaping of their own development; that the influence of c- text -...

Over the past several decades, the field of adolescent health and devel- ment has undergone a profound and pervasive transformation in the kno- edge and understanding of young lives. Popular myths about adolescent- that they are hapless victims of raging hormones or risk-takers who see themselves as invulnerable - have been laid to rest. But even more imp- tant has been the emergence of a new, scientific perspective about this stage of life. It is a perspective that recognizes that adolescents are active parti- pants in the shaping of their own development; that the influence of c- text -...