Adolescent growth and development

This paper is first in the series of working papers being developed under the information centre on young people's issues. Adolescence is a time of many transitions both for teens and their families. To ensure that teens and adults navigate these transitions successfully, it is important for both to understand what is happening to the adolescent physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially and how these transitions affect them, what adults can do to support them, and what resources are available. This paper addresses some of these issues and highlights the major landmarks of adolescent growth and development both physical as well as psychosocial from an Indian perspective. This paper would serve the purpose of understanding adolescent issues for the adolescent themselves, their parents and families, health care professionals as well as programme planners and policy makers.