Child and adolescent psychiatry is a relatively new subspeciality and it is only recently that its practitioners have started to examine the problems of teaching it on the under graduate curriculum. Questions about when it is best taught during the undergraduate years and what constitutes a core curriculum are still contentious. Indeed some psychiatrists have yet to be convinced that it should ...

In the USA, as many as 1 in 6 women nationwide become adolescent mothers, making adolescent pregnancy and childbearing issues a frequently encountered occurrence by pediatricians and adolescent medicine health care providers. Both social and medical programs focus on prevention and management of adolescent pregnancies; however, caring for the adolescent-headed family is less well understood. Fo...

OBJECTIVE Alcohol expectancies are developed, in part, through exposure to health messages, the understanding of which may be influenced by health literacy. This study explores the relationships among health literacy, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use behaviors in teens. METHODS We studied alcohol use behaviors in the past six months in youths aged 14-19 recruited from two adolescent medi...

OBJECTIVE To examine decision-making competence (the ability to form effective plans for managing different situations) in a sample of adolescents with type I diabetes and their parents. We hypothesized that adolescent decision-making competence would mediate the relationship between parent-adolescent communication and adherence to treatment. METHODS The sample consisted of 63 adolescents and...

The gynecologist may be the only physician that an adolescent depends on for primary and reproductive healthcare services. Because adolescent females often make personal healthcare decisions without the benefit of supportive parents/caregivers, it is imperative that the gynecologist understands the developmental issues encountered during this phase of life. The objective of this study is to ide...

Adolescent smoking remains a public health problem. Despite concerns regarding adolescent nicotine dependence, few well-designed smoking cessation studies have been conducted with teen smokers. This is particularly true regarding pharmacologic treatments for nicotine dependence. Currently, pharmacologic aids are not recommended for treating adolescent nicotine dependence, as efficacy has not be...

OBJECTIVE Studies have highlighted that children of adolescent (aged 15-19 years) mothers are likely to receive relatively poor healthcare. With an unacceptably high adolescent birth rate, India houses the highest number of adolescent mothers globally, putting children at risk of inadequate vaccination. This paper assesses trends and extent of socioeconomic disparities in the coverage of full i...

PURPOSE This study was done to identify fundamental data on competency reinforcement programs to prevent adolescent risk behavior by developing and examining a competency model. METHODS In this study, competences on prevention of adolescent risk behavior were identified through competency modeling, and a competency model was developed and tested for validity. RESULTS Competences for prevent...

Research indicates adolescent adjustment problems are associated with high levels of interparental conflict. This study examined parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of interparental conflict and the relationship of these perceptions to adolescent adjustment through a survey of adolescent secondary students and their parents. Sixtytwo adolescents and 62 parents participated in the study. Adole...