Adolescent Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Theory, Research, and Intervention

-Michael D. Resnick, University of Minnesota

-Elizabeth Saewyc, University of Minnesota

-Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Healthy growth and development of adolescents is an interest shared by many disciplines. It has long been an area of concern for many people working with young people or studying adolescent behavior. However, despite the common interest, each discipline has its own perspective of adolescent health and uses different terminology to communicate its concerns. Adolescent Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Theory, Research, and Intervention fills a gap in the literature about adolescent health for many disciplines including psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, public health, and health education.

Adolescent Health is a survey textbook that includes an overview of existing theories and current research on interventions that address the social morbidities and mortalities of adolescents. Author Lynn Rew examines theories from a variety of professional disciplines that provide frameworks for understanding adolescent health behavior and health outcomes. Each theory is presented in terms of its essential elements, including its origin, a brief background of the theorist′s philosophical paradigm, the purpose and usefulness of the theory, the meaning and scope of the theory, and, when available, empirical referents.

Key Features

• Comprehensively covers social morbidities and mortalities of adolescents including unintentional injuries, suicide, smoking, drug and alcohol use, high-risk sexual activity, eating disorders, mental health problems, runaway behavior, and interpersonal violence.
• Differentiates theory for practice from theory for research by consolidating multiple theoretical perspectives on adolescent health currently scattered across disciplinary boundaries into a single, multidisciplinary volume.
• Assists student comprehension by including chapter summaries, suggestions for further study, and listings of related Internet resources.

Adolescent Health is designed as a core textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying adolescent health, health-risk behavior in adolescents, and adolescent problem behaviors in a wide range of disciplines such as Health, Nursing, Medicine, Psychology, Human Development, and Human Services. In addition, it is also useful for certification courses in many interdisciplinary adolescent health training programs. The book will also be of interest to academics, researchers, and practitioners who are designing theoretically based interventions.

Lynn Rew is the Denton & Louise Cooley & Family Centennial Professor in Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin.  Born and raised in rural Iowa, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and earned both a Master of Science degree in Community Health Nursing and a Doctor of Education degree in Counselor Education from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.  In 1996 she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Adolescent Health at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine where Michael D. Resnick, Ph.D., served as her supervising mentor.  At The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, Lynn serves as Graduate Advisor and is Director of the Southwest Partnership Center for Health Disparities Research.  She is currently principal investigator on two R01 studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health, focusing on adolescent health-risk behaviors.  She also serves as Editor of the Journal of Holistic Nursing.  Lynn and her husband, dick (who prefers his name spelled with the lower case), have two grown children and have known each other since junior high school.  Lynn and dick reside in Austin, Texas.