Specific Findings and Policy Options

It is important to note, however, that apart from whatever specific strategies the Federal Government may adopt to improve adolescents’ health, there is a need for a basic change in approach to adolescent health issues in this country. Even if all the specific policy changes suggested by OTA’s analysis were to be implemented without a basic change in approach, the whole would be less than the potential sum of the parts. Instead, both the major options and the specific options (discussed below) were developed using a basic guiding principle, which should not be forgotten as specific changes are considered and, perhaps, implemented. That basic guiding principle is that a more sympathetic and supportive approach to adolescents is needed. This approach could follow the model of authoritative parenting, which combines warmth, democracy, and demandingness in a prolonged protective environment.