abstract research on child and adolescent development

Child and Adolescent Development

• First Online: 28 January 2017

Cite this chapter

• Rosalyn H. Shute 3 &
• John D. Hogan 4  

11k Accesses

For school psychologists, understanding how children and adolescents develop and learn forms a backdrop to their everyday work, but the many new ‘facts’ shown by empirical studies can be difficult to absorb; nor do they make sense unless brought together within theoretical frameworks that help to guide practice. In this chapter, we explore the idea that child and adolescent development is a moveable feast, across both time and place. This is aimed at providing a helpful perspective for considering the many texts and papers that do focus on ‘facts’. We outline how our understanding of children’s development has evolved as various schools of thought have emerged. While many of the traditional theories continue to provide useful educational, remedial and therapeutic frameworks, there is also a need to take a more critical approach that supports multiple interpretations of human activity and development. With this in mind, we re-visit the idea of norms and milestones, consider the importance of context, reflect on some implications of psychology’s current biological zeitgeist and note a growing movement promoting the idea that we should be listening more seriously to children’s own voices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

School-Age Development

Children’s Developmental Needs During the Transition to Kindergarten: What Can Research on Social-Emotional, Motivational, Cognitive, and Self-Regulatory Development Tell Us?

Transition to School from the Perspective of the Girls’ and Boys’ Parents

Achenbach, T. M. (2009). The Achenbach system of empirically based assessment (ASEBA): Development, findings, theory, and applications . Burlington, VT: Research Center for Children, Youth and Families, University of Vermont.

Google Scholar  

Ainsworth, M. D., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41 , 49–67.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (DSM-5) (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.

Book   Google Scholar  

Ames, L. B. (1996). Louise bates Ames. In D. N. Thompson & J. D. Hogan (Eds.), A history of developmental psychology in autobiography (pp. 1–23). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Anderson, V., Spencer-Smith, M., & Wood, A. (2011). Do children really recover better? Neurobehavioural plasticity after early brain insult. Brain, 134 , 2197–2221. doi: 10.1093/brain/awr103 .

Annan, J., & Priestley, A. (2011). A contemporary story of school psychology. School Psychology International, 33 (3), 325–344. doi: 10.1177/0143034311412845 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life (R. Baldick, Trans.). New York: Random House.

Arnett, J. J. (2007). Emerging adulthood: What is it, and what is it good for? Child Development Perspectives, 1 (2), 68–73. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2007.00016.x .

Arnett, J. J. (2013). The evidence for Generation We and against Generation Me. Emerging adulthood, 1 , 5–10. doi: 10.1177/2167696812466842 .

Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social learning and personality development . New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

Bjorklund, D. E., & Pellegrini, A. D. (2002). The origins of human nature: Evolutionary developmental psychology . Washington, DC: APA.

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss (Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.

Boyce, W. T., & Ellis, B. J. (2005). Biological sensitivity to context: I. An evolutionary developmental theory of the origins and function of stress reactivity. Development and Psychopathology, 17 , 271–301. doi: 10.1017/S0954579405050145 .

British Psychological Society. (2011). Response to the American Psychiatric Association: DSM-5 development . Retrieved January 16, 2015, from http://www.bps.org.uk/news/british-psychological-still-has-concerns-over-dsm-v

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (1998). Chapter 17: The ecology of developmental processes. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 535–584). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology . London: Routledge. (Original work published 1994)

Burns, M. K. (2011). School psychology research: Combining ecological theory and prevention science. School Psychology Review, 40 (1), 132–139.

Byers, L., Kulitja, S., Lowell, A., & Kruske, S. (2012). ‘Hear our stories’: Child-rearing practices of a remote Australian Aboriginal community. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 20 , 293–297. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2012.01317.x .

Cefai, C. (2011). Chapter 2: A framework for the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing in primary schools. In R. H. Shute, P. T. Slee, R. Murray-Harvey, & K. L. Dix (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing: Educational perspectives (pp. 17–28). Adelaide: Shannon Research press.

Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures . The Hague/Paris: Mouton.

Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (Eds.). (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs . Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Crain, W. (2010). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Darwin, C. (1877). A biographical sketch of an infant. Mind, 2 , 285–294.

Dekker, S., Lee, N. C., Howard-Jones, P., & Jolles, J. (2012). Neuromyths in education: Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions among teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 3 , Article 429. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429

Department of Education and Training, Victoria. (2005). Research on learning: Implications for teaching. Edited and abridged extracts . Melbourne: DET. Retrieved October 8, 2014, from www.det.vic.gov.au

Elkind, D. (2011). Developmentally appropriate practice: Curriculum and development in early education (C. Gestwicki, Guest editorial, 4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society . New York: Norton.

Freud, S. (2005). The unconscious . London, UK: Penguin.

Goodman, R., & Scott, S. (1999). Comparing the strengths and difficulties questionnaire and the child behavior checklist: Is small beautiful? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27 , 17–24.

Gredler, M. E. (2012). Understanding Vygotsky for the classroom: Is it too late? Educational Psychology Review, 24 , 113–131. doi: 10.1007/s10648-011-9183-6 .

Greene, S. (2006). Child psychology: Taking account of children at last? The Irish Journal of Psychology, 27 (1/2), 8–15.

Guenther, J. (2015). Analysis of national test scores in very remote Australian schools: Understanding the results through a different lens. In H. Askell-Williams (Ed.), Transforming the future of learning with educational research . Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Hall, G. S. (1883). The contents of children’s minds. Princeton Review, 11 , 249–272.

Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relation to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education (Vol. 1–2). New York: D. Appleton.

Heary, C., & Guerin, S. (2006). Research with children in psychology: The value of a child-centred approach. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 27 (1/2), 6–7.

Hindman, H. D. (2002). Child labor: An American history . Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Hogan, J. D. (2003). G. Stanley Hall: Educator, innovator, pioneer of developmental psychology. In G. Kimble & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. V, pp. 19–36). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Iossifova, R., & Marmolejo-Ramos, F. (2013). When the body is time: Spatial and temporal deixis in children with visual impairments and sighted children. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34 , 2173–2184.

Jantz, P. B., & Plotts, C. A. (2014). Integrating neuropsychology and school psychology: Potential and pitfalls. Contemporary School Psychology, 18 , 69–80. doi: 10.1007/s40688-013-0006-2 .

Jarvis, J. (2011). Chapter 20: Promoting mental health through inclusive pedagogy. In R. H. Shute, P. T. Slee, R. Murray-Harvey, & K. L. Dix (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing: Educational perspectives (pp. 237–248). Adelaide: Shannon Research press.

Jiang, X., Kosher, H., Ben-Arieh, A., & Huebner, E. S. (2014). Children’s rights, school psychology, and well-being assessments. Social Indicators Research, 117 , 179–193. doi: 10.1007/s11205-013-0343-6 .

Jones, M. C. (1924). A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter. Pedagogical Seminary, 31 , 308–315.

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2012). Perspectives on the dynamic development of cognitive capacities: Insights from Williams syndrome. Current Opinion in Neurology, 25 , 106–111. doi: 10.1097/WCO.0b013e3283518130 .

Kennedy, H. (2006). An analysis of assessment and intervention frameworks in educational psychology services, in Scotland. Past, present and possible worlds. School Psychology International, 27 (5), 515–534. doi: 10.1177/0143034306073396 .

Ketelaar, T., & Ellis, B. J. (2000). Are evolutionary explanations unfalsifiable? Evolutionary psychology and the Lakatosian philosophy of science. Psychological Inquiry, 11 (1), 1–21.

Lansdown, G., Jimerson, S. R., & Shahrooz, R. (2014). Children’s rights and school psychology: Children’s right to participation. Journal of School Psychology, 35 , 3–12. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2013.12.006 .

Lorenz, K. (1961). King Solomon’s ring (M. K. Wilson, Trans.). London: Methuen.

Magai, C., & McFadden, S. H. (1995). The role of emotions in social and personality development: History, theory and research . New York: Plenum.

Matthews, S. H. (2007). A window on the ‘new’ sociology of childhood. Sociology Compass, 1 , 322–334. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00001.x .

Moon, C., Lagerkrantz, H., & Kuhl, P. K. (2013). Language experience in utero affects vowel perception after birth: A two-country study. Acta Paediatrica, 102 , 156–160. doi: 10.1111/apa.12098 .

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Moriceau, S., & Sullivan, R. M. (2005). Neurobiology of infant attachment. Developmental Neurobiology, 47 (3), 230–242. doi: 10.1002/dev.20093 .

Nsamenang, A. B. (2006). Cultures in early childhood care and education . Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007, Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education . Retrieved May 6, 2014, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001474/147442e.pdf

O’Donnell, J. (1985). The origins of behaviorism. American psychology, 1870–1920 . New York: New York University Press.

Oberklaid, F. (2011). Is my child normal? Retrieved October 2, 2014, from http://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2011/september/is-my-child-normal/

Overton, W. F., & Ennis, M. D. (2006). Developmental and behavior-analytic theories: Evolving into complementarity. Human Development, 49 , 143–172. doi: 10.1159/000091893 .

Packenham, M., Shute, R. H., & Reid, R. (2004). A truncated functional behavioral assessment procedure for children with disruptive classroom behaviors. Education and Treatment of Children, 27 (1), 9–25.

Perry, B. D. (1997). Incubated in terror: Neurodevelopmental factors in the “cycle of violence”. In J. D. Osofky (Ed.), Children in a violent society . New York: Guilford.

Ritchie, J., & Ritchie, J. (1979). Growing up in Polynesia . Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Romer, D. (2010). Adolescent risk taking, impulsivity, and brain development: Implications for prevention. Developmental Psychobiology, 52 (3), 263–276. doi: 10.1002/dev.20442 .

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Rousseau, J. J. (1914). Emile on education (Foxley, Trans.). New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1762)

Rutherford, A. (2009). Beyond the box: B. F. Skinner’s technology of behaviour from laboratory to life, 1950s to 1970s . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children: Cognitive foundations (5th ed.). La Mesa, CA: Sattler.

Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic happiness . New York: Free Press.

Shier, H. (2001). Pathways to participation: Openings, opportunities and obligations. Children in Society, 15 (2), 107–117.

Shute, R. H. (2015). Transforming the future of learning: People, positivity and pluralism (and even the planet). In H. Askell-Williams (Ed.), Transforming the future of learning with educational research . Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Shute, R. H. (2016). ‘Promotion with parents is challenging’. The role of teacher communication skills and parent-teacher partnerships in school-based mental health initiatives. In R. H. Shute & P. T. Slee (Eds.), Mental health through schools: The way forward . Hove: Routledge.

Shute, R. H., & Slee, P. T. (2015). Child development: Theories and critical perspectives . Hove: Routledge.

Siegel, A. W., & White, S. H. (1982). The child study movement: Early growth and development of the symbolized child. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 17). New York: Academic.

Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior . Acton, MA: Copley Publishing.

Sparrow, S. S., Cicchetti, D. V., & Balla, D. A. (2005). Vineland adaptive behaviour scales (Vineland II) (2nd ed.). Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Pearson Australia.

Spears, B., Slee, P., Campbell, M., & Cross, D. (2011). Educational change and youth voice: Informing school action on cyberbullying. Centre for Strategic Education, Seminar Series Paper 208 . Melbourne, VIC, Australia: CSE.

Strauss, E., Sherman, E. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms and commentary (3rd ed., pp. 46–52). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://www.iapsych.com/articles/strauss2006.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm0m5ZgjHj9p9Ew9NuSmlUnv9CWiUA&oi=scholarr&ei=ZQUuVKLUGOKsjAKiuoDoBw&ved=0CCQQgAMoADAA

Teo, T. (1997). Developmental psychology and the relevance of a critical metatheoretical reflection. Human Development, 40 , 195–210.

Thelen, E., & Adolph, K. E. (1992). Arnold L. Gesell: The paradox of nature and nurture. Developmental Psychology, 28 , 368–380.

Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Timimi, S., Moncrieff, J., Jureidini, J., Leo, J., Cohen, D., Whitfield, C., … White, R. (2004). A critique of the international consensus statement on ADHD. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7 , 59–63.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (1989). Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations. Accessed October 31, 2014, from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx

Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20 , 158–177.

Watson, J. B., & Rayner, R. R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3 , 1–14.

Weaver, I. C., et al. (2004). Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 7 , 847–854.

Wood, D. (1998). How children think and learn . Oxford: Blackwell. (Original work published 1988)

Yell, M. (1998). The law and special education . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Additional Sources

Fancher, R. E., & Rutherford, A. (2012). Pioneers of psychology (4th ed.). New York: Norton.

Kessen, W. (1979). The American child and other cultural inventions. American Psychologist, 34 , 815–820.

Parke, R. D., Ornstein, P. A., Rieser, J. J., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (Eds.). (1994). A century of developmental psychology . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Thompson, D. N., Hogan, J. D., & Clark, P. M. (2012). Developmental psychology in historical perspective . Chichester: Wiley.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Psychology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

Rosalyn H. Shute

St John’s University, Jamaica, NY, USA

John D. Hogan

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosalyn H. Shute .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Psychological Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

Monica Thielking

St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York, USA

Mark D. Terjesen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Shute, R.H., Hogan, J.D. (2017). Child and Adolescent Development. In: Thielking, M., Terjesen, M. (eds) Handbook of Australian School Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45166-4_4

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45166-4_4

Published : 28 January 2017

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-45164-0

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-45166-4

eBook Packages : Behavioral Science and Psychology Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

Applied Research in Child and Adolescent Development

DOI link for Applied Research in Child and Adolescent Development

Get Citation

Developed for an NIH training institute, this volume is organized around the most frequently asked questions by researchers starting their careers in applied research in child and adolescent development. With contributions from the leading scholars in the field, actual research experiences highlight the challenges one faces in conducting such research. The techniques and theoretical frameworks most suitable for guiding the applied research process are reviewed along with related ethical and cultural considerations. Each chapter features the authors’ introduction to their own careers in applied research. Also included are practical tips, case studies, and sidebars featuring frequently asked questions.

This practical resource provides tips on how to:

• Modify the most frequently used methodological techniques while maintaining the integrity of the data
• Manage the unpredictable nature of real world research
• Frame community relevant research questions in an academically acceptable way
• Secure funding to conduct applied research
• Disseminate the research results so as to have the greatest impact on policy and practice.

The book opens with the most frequently asked questions, tips on getting started in an applied research career, and an overview of and theoretical framework for generating applied developmental research ideas. Section 2 focuses on research designs including the most frequently used methodological and measurement techniques and tips on how to modify them to applied settings. Ethical challenges and cultural issues in working with special populations are also addressed. Section 3 focuses on conducting applied research in school, community, and clinical settings with an emphasis on the challenges encountered when conducting actual research as opposed to the more controlled settings taught in a classroom. Guidelines for protecting the populations involved in the study and strategies for recruiting and retaining participants are also addressed. The book concludes with strategies for disseminating research findings so as to have the greatest impact on policy and practice, for publishing research, and for securing funding.

Intended as a practical guide, this book is ideal for those just starting their careers in applied research, for students preparing their dissertations, and for the faculty who prepare these students. The book’s accessible approach also appeals to researchers in the behavioral, social, and health sciences, education, and those in government and industry.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 4  pages, introduction, part | 2  pages, section i: getting started with applied research on child and adolescent development, chapter 2 | 30  pages, getting started: answering your frequently asked questions about applied research on child and adolescent development, chapter 3 | 22  pages, applied developmental science: definitions and dimensions, chapter 4 | 20  pages, letting your questions guide the way: framing applied questions in child and adolescent development research, section ii: challenges and issues conducting applied research on child and adolescent development, chapter 5 | 20  pages, designing applied studies for special populations: establishing and maintaining trust in research relationships, chapter 6 | 30  pages, challenges and issues in designing applied research, chapter 7 | 22  pages, ethical issues and challenges in applied research in child and adolescent development, section iii: conducting research in applied settings, chapter 8 | 20  pages, conducting translational research on child development in community settings: what you need to know and why it is worth the effort, chapter 9 | 24  pages, applied research in school settings: common challenges and practical suggestions, chapter 10 | 24  pages, conducting applied research in child and adolescent settings: why to do it and how, section iv: how to make the most of your applied research, chapter 11 | 22  pages, getting funded in applied child and adolescent development research: the art and science of applying for grants, chapter 12 | 20  pages, communicating and disseminating your applied research findings to the public, chapter 13 | 36  pages, “i am pleased to accept your manuscript”: publishing your research on child and adolescent development, chapter 14 | 6  pages, conclusion and future directions.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Taylor & Francis Group
• Students/Researchers
• Librarians/Institutions

Connect with us

Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2024 Informa UK Limited

Warning: The NCBI web site requires JavaScript to function. more...

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it's official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• Browse Titles

NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Forum on Adolescence; Kipke MD, editor. Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty: Summary of a Workshop on New Research. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1999.

Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty: Summary of a Workshop on New Research.

• Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

Changes in the Study of Adolescent Development

Over the last two decades, the research base in the field of adolescent development has undergone a growth spurt. Knowledge has expanded significantly. New studies have allowed more complex views of the multiple dimensions of adolescence, fresh insights into the process and timing of puberty, and new perspectives on the behaviors associated with the second decade of life. At the same time, the field's underlying theoretical assumptions have changed and matured.

Researchers of human development have consistently observed that the second decade of life is a time of dramatic change: a period of rapid physical growth, endocrine (hormone) changes, cognitive development and increasing analytic capability; emotional growth, a time of self-exploration and increasing independence, and active participation in a more complex social universe. For much of this century, scientists and scholars studying adolescence tended to assume that the changes associated with adolescence were almost entirely dictated by biological influences. It has been viewed as a time of storm and stress, best contained or passed through as quickly as possible. Adolescence , a 1904 book by G. Stanley Hall, typified this standpoint. It was Hall who popularized the notion that adolescence is inevitably a time of psychological and emotional turmoil (Hall, 1904). Half a century later, psychoanalytic writers including Anna Freud accepted and augmented Hall's emphasis on turmoil (Petersen, 1988). Even today, "raging hormones" continue to be a popular explanation for the lability, aggression, and sexual activity associated with adolescence (Litt, 1995). Intense conflict between adolescents and their parents is often considered an unavoidable consequence of adolescence (Petersen, 1988). However, this assumption is not supported by scientific evidence. The assumption that turmoil and conflict are inevitable consequences of the teenage years may even have prevented some adolescents from receiving the support and services they needed.

Research is now creating a more realistic view of adolescence. Adolescence continues to be seen as a period of time encompassing difficult developmental challenges, but there is wider recognition that biology is only one factor that affects young people's development, adjustment, and behavior. In fact, there is mounting evidence that parents, members of the community, service providers, and social institutions can both promote healthy development among adolescents and intervene effectively when problems arise.

The study of adolescence is now becoming an increasingly sophisticated science. Thanks to powerful new research tools and other scientific and technological advances, today's theories of adolescent development are more likely to be supported by scientific evidence than in the past. Indeed, there has been sufficient research to allow a reassessment of the nature of adolescent development. At the same time, there is greater recognition that neither puberty nor adolescence can be understood without considering the social and cultural contexts in which young people grow and develop, including the familial and societal values, social and economic conditions, and institutions that they experience. This research has contributed the following to our understanding of adolescence:

• The adolescent years need not be troubled years.

There is now greater recognition that young people can move through the adolescent years without experiencing great trauma or getting into serious trouble; most young people do. Although adolescence can certainly be a challenging span of years, individuals negotiate it with varying degrees of difficulty, just as they do other periods of life. Moreover, when problems do arise during adolescence they should not be considered as "normal"—i.e., that the adolescent will grow out of it—nor should they be ignored (Petersen, 1988).

• Only a segment of the adolescent population is at high risk for experiencing serious problems.

Over the past 50 years, studies conducted in North America and Europe have documented that only about a quarter of the adolescent population is at high risk for, or more vulnerable to, a wide range of psychosocial problems (Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1995). These adolescents are not believed to be at increased risk because of biological or hormonal changes associated with puberty, but rather from a complex interaction among biological, environmental, and social factors. Indeed, as discussed by Anne Petersen, there is mounting evidence that most biological changes interact with a wide range of contextual, psychological, social, and environmental factors that affect behavior (Buchanan et al., 1992; Susman, 1997, see also Brooks-Gunn et al., 1994). Researchers are also concluding that behaviors associated with adolescence, including some high risk behaviors, are influenced by the social milieu (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). Studies show that, in contrast to children and adults, the most common causes of mortality among adolescents are associated with social, environmental, and behavioral factors rather than genetic, congenital, or biological diseases. Indeed, many of today's adolescents are using alcohol and other drugs, engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse, and are both victims and perpetrators of violence, which puts them at increased risk for a wide range of developmental and health-related problems, including morbidity and mortality. It is important to note that the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents are entirely preventable. Although relatively small, a significant number of adolescents also experience morbidity and mortality associated with genetic and congenital disorders (such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy), cancer, and infectious diseases that affect their development, behavior, and well-being.

• Adolescent behavior is influenced by complex interactions between the biological and social contexts.

In the past, researchers tended to conduct research designed to examine the impact of hormones on adolescent behavior. While this work continues, there is now an appreciation for the complex reciprocal relationship and interaction between biological and social environments, and the interaction between these environments and adolescent behavior (Graber et al., 1997).

• Current understanding of adolescent development remains limited.

Although the study of adolescence is becoming more sophisticated in nature, researchers also recognize that the current knowledge base on adolescent development and behavior is quite limited. The research conducted to date has predominately been descriptive in nature, relied on cross-sectional data, and been unidimensional in focus. Indeed, few research studies have successfully considered the multiple factors that collectively influence adolescent development. As discussed by Iris Litt, there is now a growing appreciation that new research is needed, including research that employs longitudinal designs; characterizes developmental changes associated with the onset of puberty well before the age of 8; and seeks to characterize growth and development across the life span—i.e., from infancy to adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and the senior years. Studying these developmental stages in isolation from one another provides only a partial and incomplete picture.

• Researchers from diverse fields, including the biological, behavioral, and social sciences, have developed new techniques to study adolescent development.

Use of more rigorous research methods has improved the reliability and validity of the measurement techniques used, and consequently the ability to document the multifaceted dimensions of growth and maturation during adolescence. For example, the development of radioimmunoassay methodology in the late 1960s, and the considerable refinement of that process over the decades, have made it possible to study the hormones that control reproductive maturation. The development of neuroimaging technology in the 1970s created exciting new opportunities for studying brain development; these techniques include more sensitive, easy-to-use hormone assay technology and new brain imaging technologies, allowing insight into brain development and function. Moreover, longitudinal studies are increasingly being designed to characterize the interaction among genetic, biological, familial, environmental, social, and behavioral factors (both risk and protective in nature) among children and adolescents. For example, a valuable new source of data that has the potential to significantly advance the knowledge base of physiological and behavioral development among adolescents is the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (called Add Health). From the collection of longitudinal data, it will be possible to examine how the timing and tempo of puberty influences social and cognitive development among teenagers. This dataset will also permit analyses to examine how family-, school-and individual-level risk and protective factors are associated with adolescent health and morbidity (e.g., emotional health, violence, substance use, sexuality).

• An Increasing Number of Disciplines are Beginning to Conduct Research on Adolescent Development.

Understanding adolescent development requires answers to a number of difficult questions: how do adolescents develop physically, how do their relationships with parents and friends change, how are young people as a group viewed and treated by society, how does adolescence in our society differ from adolescence in other cultures, and how has adolescence and adolescent development changed over the past few decades. A complete understanding of adolescence, and the potential to answer these questions depends on an integrated approach, and involvement of a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to endocrinology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, genetics, anthropology, neuroscience, history, and economics. While each discipline offers its own view point regarding adolescence and adolescent development, the field will not be able to successfully answer these questions without integrating the contributions of different disciplines into a coherent and comprehensive viewpoint. Fortunately, studies of puberty are increasingly drawing on and therefore benefiting from the knowledge base of these diverse fields.

• Cite this Page National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Forum on Adolescence; Kipke MD, editor. Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty: Summary of a Workshop on New Research. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1999. Changes in the Study of Adolescent Development.
• PDF version of this title (248K)

In this Page

Recent activity.

• Changes in the Study of Adolescent Development - Adolescent Development and the ... Changes in the Study of Adolescent Development - Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty

Your browsing activity is empty.

Activity recording is turned off.

Turn recording back on

Connect with NLM

National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894

Web Policies FOIA HHS Vulnerability Disclosure

Help Accessibility Careers

• Help & FAQ

Child and Adolescent Development for Educators

Research output : Book/Report › Book › Other › peer-review

T1 - Child and Adolescent Development for Educators

AU - Bergin, Christi Crosby

AU - Bergin, David Allen

AU - Walker, Sue

AU - Daniel, Graham

AU - Fenton, Angela

AU - Subban, Pearl

N2 - Child and Adolescent Development for Educators covers development from early childhood through high school. This text provides authentic, research-based strategies and guidelines for the classroom, helping future teachers to create an environment that promotes optimal development in children.The authors apply child development concepts to topics of high interest and relevance to teachers, including classroom behaviour management, constructivism, social-emotional development, and many others. The text combines core theory with practical implications for educational contexts, and shows how child development links to the Australian Professional Standards for Graduate Teachers. Case studies and real-world vignettes illustrate concepts, while research, including the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, and Longitudinal Study of Indigenous children, bridges the distance between research and the classroom.

AB - Child and Adolescent Development for Educators covers development from early childhood through high school. This text provides authentic, research-based strategies and guidelines for the classroom, helping future teachers to create an environment that promotes optimal development in children.The authors apply child development concepts to topics of high interest and relevance to teachers, including classroom behaviour management, constructivism, social-emotional development, and many others. The text combines core theory with practical implications for educational contexts, and shows how child development links to the Australian Professional Standards for Graduate Teachers. Case studies and real-world vignettes illustrate concepts, while research, including the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, and Longitudinal Study of Indigenous children, bridges the distance between research and the classroom.

SN - 9780170388665

BT - Child and Adolescent Development for Educators

PB - Cengage Learning

CY - Southbank Vic Australia

A deep dive into adolescent development

Spearheaded by psychologists, a new long-term study will produce mountains of open-access data on adolescents

By Kirsten Weir

June 2019, Vol 50, No. 6

Print version: page 20

• Open Science

In January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released the first complete baseline data set from the largest-ever study of adolescent health and development. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study will follow 11,874 children, starting at ages 9 and 10, for the next decade.

The ABCD Study will collect mountains of data: on neurological development, sociocultural and psychological factors, mental and physical health, environmental exposures, substance use, academic achievement and more. It's a huge undertaking, with huge implications for understanding children's development as they move through adolescence and into early adulthood.

"This is a massive effort, notable for both its scope and its depth," says Sandra Brown, PhD, vice chancellor for research and professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the ABCD Coordinating Center.

Because the project looks at so many different aspects of development, researchers will be able to mine the data to understand problems such as substance use and the emergence of mental illness, as well as the normal course of healthy adolescent development, adds Sara Jo Nixon, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Florida and a principal investigator of the study. "Often, we're interested in what went wrong, and indeed we'll have data to speak to those problems. But we'll also have data to look at resiliency and the kinds of factors—whether biological, psychological, social or cultural—that really nurture healthy development," she says. "This study is the epitome of what any psychological scientist would love to do."

ABCD basics

Launched in 2016, the ABCD Study is coordinated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, with support from numerous other NIH institutes and offices as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To assist in recruitment, APA provided NIH with a statement encouraging families to consider participating, and an APA staff member serves on the ABCD national liaison board.

The study encompasses 21 research sites across the country and will follow participants for 10 years. It's an interdisciplinary effort, but psychologists Brown and Terry Jernigan, PhD, also at the University of California, San Diego, sit at the helm of the Coordinating Center, and 26 of the 40 principal investigators are psychologists. The study was carefully planned from the start to include a diverse group of adolescents, Brown says.

"We worked with high-quality epidemiologists, so the sample we're bringing to the table is a good reflection of the socio­demographics of the United States," she says.

To manage such a large project, the study's designers included funding for a co­­ordinating center and a data management center. There's also a retention committee that works to ensure that as many of the participants as possible stick it out over the next decade—no small feat, considering the time investment. The project involves neuroimaging, genetic testing and behavioral testing as well as numerous questionnaires for the children, their parents and teachers. Participants will wear sensors 'round-the-clock for several weeks, most likely once a year, to collect data about activity levels, heart rate and sleep patterns. Investigators will even collect hair samples and baby teeth to study exposures to environmental toxins. The study includes more than 2,000 twins and triplets, allowing researchers to begin to tease apart genetic susceptibility from environmental influences.

As the children move into their teenage years, researchers will be able to explore questions about substance use, physical activity, sports injuries, sleep, learning and the emergence of mental health problems—and that's just for starters, says psychologist Susan Tapert, PhD, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and an associate director of the ABCD Coordinating Center. "There's really an infinite number of questions that can be addressed here."

Principal investigators aren't the only scientists who will be able to answer them. The study was developed with an open-access model, and the data collected are freely available to any qualified researcher who wants to tap into them via the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive .

The open-science philosophy will drive the science forward faster, while the large sample size and methodologically rigorous study design will ensure that the data are trustworthy, says Raul Gonzalez, PhD, an ABCD principal investigator and professor of psychology at Florida International University. "There is a replication crisis in the sciences, and a lot of that crisis is partially due to small sample sizes and a bias to publish significant results," he says. "With this study, there is an opportunity to assess a lot of questions that are controversial in our field."

Another unique element of the open-access model: Lead investigators won't have preferential access to data before they've been made available to the general public. Whether you're a principal investigator at one of the study sites or a grad student far from the action, you will have the same opportunity to access the same information at the same time through planned data releases. "That says a lot about the commitment of the leadership team to make sure transparency and reproducibility are addressed head-on," says Nixon.

Early findings

Investigators finished recruiting participants only last year, yet they have already begun drawing insights from the study. In one analysis of the baseline data, Aaron Blashill, PhD, and Jerel Calzo, PhD, of San Diego State University, explored differences in mood disorders and suicidality between 9- and 10-year-olds who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual and those who identified as heterosexual. The rate of mood disorders was 22.5 percent for sexual minority children, compared with 6.9 percent for heterosexual children. Similarly, 19.1 percent of sexual minority children experienced suicidal thoughts, while just 4.6 percent of heterosexual children did ( Journal of Affective Disorders , Vol. 246, No. 1, 2019).

Other groups have pulled from ABCD data to explore a pressing 21st-century problem: the effects of screen time. Jeremy Walsh, PhD, now at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and colleagues explored physical activity, screen-time behavior and sleep among more than 4,500 of the participants. They found that children who met recommended guidelines for these activities—at least 60 minutes of physical activity, no more than two hours of recreational screen time and 9 to 11 hours of sleep daily—had better cognition than those who did not, as measured by tests of attention, language abilities, episodic memory, working memory, executive function and processing speed. Unfortunately, though, only half of the children in the sample got the recommended amount of sleep, just 36 percent had fewer than two hours of screen time and a mere 17 percent engaged in the recommended amount of daily exercise, the researchers found ( The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health , Vol. 2, No. 11, 2018).

Meanwhile, Tapert and colleagues found a link between screen time and a variety of complex structural brain changes, including cortical thickness, sulcal depth and gray matter volume. Different patterns of structural changes were related to downstream outcomes such as externalizing psycho­pathology and fluid and crystallized intelligence. But the changes differed depending on the type of screen media—and they weren't all bad (or all good) ( Neuroimage , Vol. 185, No. 1, 2019). "Kids who frequently played video games tended to have poorer mental health profiles and more family conflict, for example, while kids who were engaged in social media tended to have slightly better social and mental health functioning," she says. "It's not just how much screen time a child gets, but what they're doing."

With a single time point of data, it's too soon to make conclusions about the pros and cons of different screen media activities, Tapert notes. But as researchers follow the children in the years to come, they hope to be able to paint a more detailed picture of the effects of screen time on the brain.

A study that evolves

A lot can change in a decade. New social media platforms pop up almost overnight. Drug laws change, and the popularity of certain substances of abuse can wax and wane. New genetic tests and biomarkers may be discovered, new sensor technology could become available and neuroimaging techniques will be refined. The ABCD investigators have designed the study to accommodate such changes, so that new survey questions can be added and new technologies can be incorporated in future waves of data collection. "We have structures within ABCD that allow us to maintain enough continuity, so we can look at change in a systematic way and also augment the study using new methodologies," Brown says.

With its breadth, depth and flexible experimental design, the ABCD Study will serve as a model for other large-scale, long-term projects, investigators say. It also serves to showcase just how much psychology can do. "This is truly team science, led in large part by psychologists," Nixon says. "It speaks to the strength of our science, and the opportunity for psychologists to play a leading role in inter­disciplinary research." 

The Structure of Cognition in 9 and 10 Year-Old Children and Associations With Problem Behaviors:Findings From the ABCD Study's Baseline Neurocognitive Battery Thompson, W.K., et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience , 2018

A Description of the ABCD Organizational Structure and Communication Framework Auchter, A.M., et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience , 2018

Adolescent Neurocognitive Development and Impacts of Substance Use:Overview of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Baseline Neurocognition Battery Luciana, M., et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience , 2018

Letters to the Editor

• Send us a letter

•   [email protected]

Psychology Research Guide

Child & adolescent development.

“Child development”, or “child and adolescent development” refers to the process of growth and maturation of the human individual from conception to adulthood. The term “adolescence” has particular connotations in particular cultural and social contexts. Child & Adolescent Psychology focuses on understanding the physical, social, psychological, and cognitive needs of young human beings. You can read more about the focus of Child & Adolescent Development on the American Psychological Association's Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology website This link opens in a new window . To find ideas for paper/research topics within child & adolescent development, visit these sites:

APA Psychology Topics This link opens in a new window (Try Bullying; Children; Education; Kids & the Media; Learning & Memory; Parenting; Teens)

Child & Adolescent Development Databases

Research in child & adolescent psychology utilizes core psychology resources, as well as resources in child & family development and sociology. You may find it helpful to search the following databases for your child & adolescent development topics or research questions, in addition to the core resources listed on the home page.

Child & Adolescent Development Subject Headings

You may find it helpful to take advantage of predefined subjects or subject headings in Shapiro Databases. These subjects are applied to articles and books by expert catalogers to help you find materials on your topic.

• Learn more about Subject Searching

Consider using databases to perform subject searches, or incorporating words from applicable subjects into your keyword searches. Here are some social psychology subjects to consider:

• adopted children
• Attachment Theory
• child abuse
• child behavior
• children of alcoholics
• cognitive development
• developmental stages
• early childhood development
• emotional development
• family relations
• middle school/junior high school/high school students
• parent child relations
• peer pressure
• personality

Child & Adolescent Development Organization Websites

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) This link opens in a new window A national professional medical association dedicated to treating and improving the quality of life for children, adolescents, and families affected by mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders.
• Child & Adolescent Development course module (UNHCR) This link opens in a new window This Resource Pack published by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees' Action for the Rights of Children (ARC) is a training module for those working with children and teen refugees. It covers major areas of child development acknowledging that " the concept of childhood is understood differently in different cultural and social contexts."
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) This link opens in a new window NICHD’s mission is to lead research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.
• Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology (APA Division) This link opens in a new window The Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is Division 53 of the American Psychological Association. Its purpose is to encourage the development and advancement of clinical child and adolescent psychology through integration of its scientific and professional aspects.
• Child Welfare Information Gateway - Understanding Adolescent Development This link opens in a new window United States Health & Human Services Children's Bureau Child Welfare Information Gateway has extensive resources on child & adolescent development. This link leads to their "Understanding Adolescent Development" resources page.
• << Previous: Applied Psychology
• Next: Forensic Psychology >>

Erikson and Adolescent Development

Contemporary views on an enduring legacy.

• Peter L. Benson Search Institute
• Matthew Bundick Duquesne University

Many of Erik Erikson’s theoretical contributions to our understanding of adolescent psychosocial development endure; some have even proven to be true. At the same time, in the decades since Erikson’s seminal works there have been many advances in developmental theory, especially in the realms of identity and positive youth development, along with important critiques of adolescent psychosocial theory. Together, these advances and critiques provide new lenses through which Erikson’s work may viewed. The present work thus reviews the enduring concepts and qualities as well as limitations of Erikson’s views on psychosocial development in adolescence, while considering possible expansions in light of contemporary identity theories and technological advances.

How to Cite

• Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

• The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
• Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
• Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
• The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
• Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
• the Work is the Author’s original work;
• the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
• the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
• the Work has not previously been published;
• the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
• the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
• The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
• The Author agrees to digitally sign the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work.

Similar Articles

• Thomas Cottle , Adolescent as Story Teller , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 15-16 (2001)
• Stephanie Spina, Wired for Growth: , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 12-13 (1998)
• Thomas Cottle , The Role of Affirmation in the Development of the Self , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 18 (2003)
• Holly Kreider, Girls and Women in Group Care: , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 10 (1995)
• Gil Noam, Kendra Winner, Andrew Rhein, Bracha Molad, The Harvard Rally Program And The Prevention Practitioner: , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 11 (1996)
• Thomas Cottle, On Revelation and Recognition , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 20 (2005)
• Rebecca Storey, Girls Rule: , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 19 (2004)
• Michael Gaffley, Investigation, Design, and Implementation of a Therepeutic Milieu for Children and Youth in Residential Care in the New South Africa , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 15-16 (2001)
• Thomas Shaw, The Ethnographer As Youth's Apprentice , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 11 (1996)
• Cynthia Rubenstein, The Haven's Independent Living Program , Journal of Child and Youth Care Work: Vol. 6 (1990)

1   2   >   >>  

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Developed By

Information.

• For Readers
• For Authors
• For Librarians

• Open access
• Published: 24 October 2013

Research priorities for child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviours: an international perspective using a twin-panel Delphi procedure

• Lauren Gillis 1 ,
• Grant Tomkinson 1 ,
• Timothy Olds 1 ,
• Carla Moreira 2 ,
• Candice Christie 3 ,
• Claudio Nigg 4 ,
• Ester Cerin 5 ,
• Esther Van Sluijs 6 ,
• Gareth Stratton 7 ,
• Ian Janssen 8 ,
• Jeremy Dorovolomo 9 ,
• John J Reilly 10 ,
• Jorge Mota 2 ,
• Kashef Zayed 11 ,
• Kent Kawalski 12 ,
• Lars Bo Andersen 13 ,
• Manuel Carrizosa 14 ,
• Mark Tremblay 15 ,
• Michael Chia 16 ,
• Mike Hamlin 17 ,
• Non Eleri Thomas 18 ,
• Ralph Maddison 19 ,
• Stuart Biddle 20 ,
• Trish Gorely 21 ,
• Vincent Onywera 22 &
• Willem Van Mechelen 23  

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity volume  10 , Article number:  112 ( 2013 ) Cite this article

98k Accesses

48 Citations

43 Altmetric

Metrics details

The quantity and quality of studies in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour have rapidly increased, but research directions are often pursued in a reactive and uncoordinated manner.

To arrive at an international consensus on research priorities in the area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

Two independent panels, each consisting of 12 experts, undertook three rounds of a Delphi methodology. The Delphi methodology required experts to anonymously answer questions put forward by the researchers with feedback provided between each round.

The primary outcome of the study was a ranked set of 29 research priorities that aimed to be applicable for the next 10 years. The top three ranked priorities were: developing effective and sustainable interventions to increase children’s physical activity long-term; policy and/or environmental change and their influence on children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour; and prospective, longitudinal studies of the independent effects of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on health.

Conclusions

These research priorities can help to guide decisions on future research directions.

Recent research has shown that both physical activity and sedentary behaviour are associated with a wide range of current and future health outcomes [ 1 – 3 ]. In fact, physical activity and sedentary behaviour are two independent and not mutually exclusive behaviours with different effects on health outcomes [ 4 ]. In the short term, physical activity has been shown to be moderately and positively associated with bone health, aerobic fitness, blood lipid levels, self-esteem, mental activity and fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents [ 1 – 3 , 5 ]. In the long term, both physical activity and sedentary behaviour have been identified as major, independent, modifiable risk factors for mortality and morbidity from many chronic, non-communicable and potentially preventable diseases [ 6 – 9 ]. New evidence also suggests that the relation between sedentary behaviour and all-cause end cardiovascular disease mortality is independent of physical activity levels [ 7 ].

Chronic diseases place a large economic burden on health services and impose significant costs on society (e.g. premature death, underappreciated economic effects and greater reliance on treatment) [ 8 ]. Although the ill effects of chronic disease largely manifest in adulthood, it is increasingly understood that the development typically begins in childhood or adolescence [ 9 ]. Therefore, physical activity levels and sedentary behaviour performed in the early years could potentially influence the development of disease later on in life.

At present, a large quantity of research is being conducted into the physical activity and sedentary behaviour of children, yet the research community remains challenged to provide a solid evidence base [ 10 ]. This is in part due to a lack of international research collaboration and a high degree of study repetition. The aim of this study therefore was to arrive at a set of international research priorities for physical activity and sedentary behaviour to guide more meaningful and focussed research. Specifically, this study aimed to answer the following research question: “What are the most important international research issues for the next 10 years in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour?” Agreement on research priorities may help to inform evidence-based policy, guide funding allocation, and direct research options for postgraduate students [ 11 , 12 ].

Existing literature

To identify existing evidence in this area, a systematic review of the English and non-English literature was performed using the following search terms: physical activit* OR motor activity (MeSH) OR sedentary behavio* AND child* OR adolescen* OR youth* AND research priorit* OR research agenda* OR research issue*. The databases PsychINFO (1887–), SPORTDiscus (1949–), Cochrane (1992–), CINAHL (1937–), ERIC (1966–) and PubMed (1950–) were searched in May 2012. Additional studies were also identified by contacting experts, Google searching and identifying potential studies in the reference lists of identified studies. Only four previously published papers that arrived at research priorities in child physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour were identified [ 11 , 13 – 15 ]. A working paper by Bull et al. [ 11 ] identified research priorities in physical activity with a focus on low to middle income countries. Evenson and Mota [ 13 ] highlighted research on the determinants and outcomes of physical activity and made recommendations for future study designs. Mountjoy et al. [ 15 ] identified existing gaps in physical activity research for children, with a focus on the need for greater collaboration between sport and existing programmes. The final study by Fulton et al. [ 14 ] had two aims. Firstly, the study aimed to review the current knowledge of existing methods for assessing physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Secondly, on the basis of this, the study aimed to set research priorities on the use of reliable and valid measurement tools to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children aged 2–5 years.

While these studies were valuable contributions, they also had many limitations, including unsystematic participant selection, unstructured data collection procedures, and limited reporting on the process followed to arrive at the research priorities. Furthermore, the participants involved in the decision-making processes did not always represent the broader community of researchers, either from a geographical or institutional point of view. In addition, the anonymity of participants was not maintained during the consensus process. These limitations warranted a further study with an aim to arrive at a set of research priorities by employing a structured and rigorous methodology and improving reporting quality.

Methodology

Ethical approval for all aspects of the methodology was granted by the University of South Australia Human Research Ethics Committee in September 2011.

This study employed a Delphi procedure. This procedure is appropriate for research questions which cannot be answered with complete certainty, but rather by the subjective opinion of a collective group of informed experts [ 16 ]. It allowed systematic refinement of the experts’ opinions over the course of several rounds while minimising confounding factors present in other group response methods [ 17 – 20 ].

The experts who participated in the Delphi procedure were identified by a 3–step procedure. Firstly, the lead study investigators independently recommended known researchers for the study. Secondly, a lengthy and extensive search was carried out to identify potential researchers from every world region and sub-region. Identifying potential experts from these regions involved searching for staff of relevant international bodies, government departments, non-government organisations, professional organisations and educational institutions. Thirdly, following email communication with the experts who have previously been identified, new experts were referred to the study investigators.

Once participants had been identified, it was important to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the study. Thus they were assessed using pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. To be eligible, a researcher had to be an author of at least one peer-reviewed scientific publication on the physical activity or sedentary behaviour of children or adolescents, and must hold (at the time of selection) a senior position in their organisation. In addition, the experts were deliberately chosen to give geographical coverage of every world region and sub-region. Relevant information was gathered from staff homepages, Scopus author searches, the Journal and Author Name Estimator ( http://www.biosemantics.org/jane/ ) and other relevant Internet searches to ascertain whether a researcher met these criteria.

Forty-six eligible experts were invited to participate, with each sent information and consent forms via email. As a whole, these participants were representative of every region and sub-region. Of those invited, 20 did not respond to the invitation, two declined to participate, and 24 returned signed consent forms. An outline of this process is illustrated in Figure  1 .

Purposive sampling process undertaken.

The 24 participating experts (17 male and 7 female) were randomly allocated to either Panel A or Panel B and assigned identification code names accordingly. Furthermore the following major institution types were represented by the selected experts; educational institutions, government organisations, non-government organisations, professional organisations and community organisations.

The Delphi procedure used three rounds [ 21 ], each consisting of data collection, data analysis and controlled feedback. The survey was administered entirely online using a Survey Gizmo questionnaire. A novel feature of this study was the use of two parallel panels of experts. The existence of an alternate panel was only made known to the participants in Round 3, when each panel was asked to rank the priorities of the other panel. This allowed quantitative comparisons to be made between each panel’s rankings of each research issue and cross-validated the rankings of research priorities developed by each panel.

To commence each round, experts were sent an email containing a direct link to the online questionnaire. Briefly, Round 1 required each expert to answer the question “What are the five most important research issues for the next 10 years in the area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour?” Each expert put forward five research issues which they believed were priorities in the area. They also provided a brief description of each issue and reasons why they believed the issue to be a priority. The three study investigators reviewed all issues that were provided by each panel, with common issues combined into a single issue. The experts were then fed back their panel’s list of research issues and asked to ensure that the five research issues they provided were accurately represented.

Round 2 then asked experts to “review the research issues put forward in Round 1 and rate how important they believe each issue is for global research in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour”. Experts rated each research issue independently using a 5-point Likert scale (5 = very important, 4 = important, 3 = moderately important, 2 = of little importance and 1 = unimportant). The three study investigators then short-listed each panel’s research issues to 20 according to those with highest mean Likert scale ratings. Following this, the top 20 research issues from each panel were fed back to the experts of the relevant panels.

In Round 3, experts were first asked to “rank their panel’s top 20 research issues in order of perceived international importance in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour over the next 10 years”. The experts were then similarly asked to rank the alternate panel’s top 20 research priorities. The data analysis procedure was as follows. Firstly, the overall sum of each panel’s rankings was calculated for Panel A and Panel B’s top 20 research issues. Secondly, the two lists of research issues were combined with common issues provided by both panels merged. This resulted in 29 unique issues. Thirdly, the experts’ individual rankings for each research issue were summed. This allowed the issues to be ranked according to the sum of Panel A and Panel B’s overall rankings for each issue. Intra-panel agreement was quantified using Spearman’s rho by creating a matrix to compare individuals’ rankings to one another within the same panel. Inter-panel agreement was also quantified using Spearman’s rho to compare the overall sum and rank for each issue between panels.

Expert demographics

All 24 experts completed the three Delphi rounds. Data was collected on the 24 experts’ geographical distributions, institutional affiliations and years worked in the study area.

As a group, the 24 experts represented every geographical region and 12 sub-regions. This geographical distribution is illustrated in Figure  2 .

Geographical distributions of participating experts. The numbers indicate the number of participating experts from that region.

In terms of institutional affiliation, twenty-three experts acknowledged they were affiliated with an educational institution, eleven were affiliated with a professional organisation, six with an international organisation, six with a non-government organisation and four with a government organisation. It was noted that due to the nature of their work, experts were often affiliated with more than one institution type.

In regards to years worked in the study area, twelve experts had worked in for greater than 16 years, five had worked for 11 to 15 years, four had worked for 6 to10 years and three had worked for less than five years.

Results from Delphi rounds

In Round 1, each expert put forward five research issues. Collectively this provided a total of 120 issues across all 24 experts, with 60 for each panel. Following qualitative reduction of overlapping issues, 26 issues from Panel A and 34 issues from Panel B, were carried forward to Round 2. On reviewing the amended list, all exerts agreed that the issues they had raised were adequately represented.

From Round 2, the mean Likert-scale ratings were used to determine the top 20 issues for each panel. For Panel A, the mean Likert-scale ratings of the top 20 issues ranged from 3.5 to 5.0, with 18 of 20 issues having a median rating of >4.0 (“important”). For Panel B, the mean Likert-scale ratings of the top 20 issues ranged from 4.0 to 4.8, with all 20 research issues having a median rating of >4.0.

In Round 3, the 20 issues from Panel A and 20 issues from Panel B were qualitatively analysed to form one list. Eleven of each panel’s top 20 research issues were common to both panels and were therefore combined, with the remaining 18 issues (nine from each panel) unique. The resultant was a set of 29 unique research issues that were then ranked in order of importance by summing Panel A and Panel B’s rankings for each issue Table  1 .

There was only weak intra-panel agreement. The mean inter-individual rho ( ± 95% CI) was 0.20 ±0.05 for Panel A and 0.13 ±0.04 for Panel B. The average standard deviation of the rankings for individual issues was 5.1 (Panel A) and 5.3 (Panel B). When Panel B ranked Panel A’s issues, the correlation was very strong ( rho ± 95% CI: 0.79 ±0.17), and when Panel A ranked Panel B’s issues, the correlation was strong ( rho ± 95% CI: 0.52 ±0.31). Figures  3 and 4 clearly illustrate the correlations for each research issue.

Agreement between Panel A’s rankings and Panel B’s rankings of Panel A’s identified issues. The line shown is the identity line.

Agreement between Panel B’s rankings and Panel A’s rankings of Panel B’s identified issues. The line shown is the identity line.

Study outcomes

The primary outcome of this study was the development of 29 international research priorities in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. In order for the research priorities to be useful, it is important that they be neither too general nor too specific. The research priorities in this study appear broad enough to enable them to be transferable to researchers’ specific regions and contexts.

The final set of research priorities address a broad range of areas from epidemiology, determinants and correlates, through to intervention effectiveness and translational research. Of the 29 identified research priorities, ten related directly to translational research centred on intervention design and effectiveness. These focussed on specific behaviours (active transport, screen time, sport, physical education), settings (schools, communities, whole of population), or vehicles (mass advertising, policy). Translational research, centred on intervention design and effectiveness, can potentially guide governments and stakeholders to fund interventions that are the most effective, sustainable and transferable for changing behaviours [ 7 ]. This is important because to date, the research community has not been very successful at developing interventions for children and adolescents that bring about long-term and sustained change in health behaviours [ 10 ]. In addition, little attention has been given to the importance of the intervention setting and establishing what works in what situation and with whom [ 22 ].

Nine of the research priorities had a focus on capturing and quantifying the health benefits of engaging in physical activity and limiting sedentary behaviour, These research priorities were concerned with the impact of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on obesity, cognition, and general health and well being, and on describing behavioural patterns (across the day or the life-course or in specific populations such as pre-school children). Epidemiological research was considered important to address the cause, distribution and patterns of childhood physical activity and sedentary behaviour on current and future health [ 2 , 6 , 9 , 23 ].

Six research issues related to determinants and correlates research such as psychosocial and cultural/parental factors, the impact of technology, and the importance of enjoyment and lifestyle in general. Research that focuses on the determinants and correlates of behaviours is important. This is because while many correlates appear to be intuitively obvious, at present they have mixed support from high quality research [ 3 ].

Four issues did not fit into the aforementioned categories. They were related to the theory of behaviour change, injury prevention, measurement of behaviours and the physical education in culture of movement. Objective measurement of behaviours was ranked highly and is thought to be a “necessary first step for conducting meaningful epidemiological surveillance, public health research and intervention research” [ 14 ] p.124.

Strengths and limitations

Unlike previously identified priority reports [ 11 , 13 – 15 ] this study employed a Delphi method to arrive at a more valid set of research priorities. Strengths related to the Delphi method include participant blinding, iterative data collection and controlled feedback between rounds. For example, the identities and responses of the experts were anonymised so that the identified research priorities could not be dominated by certain individuals [ 24 ]. Furthermore, the provision of controlled feedback allowed experts to individually consider their views in light of their panel’s collective opinion.

Other strengths related to the methodology were the use of criterion and purposive sampling methods. This procedure meant that all participants held a senior position in their respective organisations and had published in the study area. In addition, experts collectively represented every major world region and a wide range of discipline areas, affiliations and interests. This approach meant that the identified research issues were more likely to reflect the most important physical activity and sedentary behaviour issues facing the children and adolescents worldwide.

A novel component of this study was split-panel approach, which allowed comparisons to be made between the rankings given by the two expert panels. The experts from each panel were taken from the same population, given the same study information, answered identical online questionnaires and participated simultaneously and independently. One can therefore be confident that comparing the Round 3 rankings of Panel A and Panel B experts would provide valid measures of inter-panel agreement.

The weak intra-panel agreement was weak, which is likely a reflection of the natural variation of individual’s opinions and areas of interest within the broad study area. This weak agreement could also highlight the advantages of the methodology which retained anonymity and used an online mode of data collection. There were fewer pressures to conform to others opinions due to decreased likelihood of peer dominance and status. Evidence to reinforce confidence in the results is the strong to very strong (rho = 0.52–0.79) inter-panel agreement. While experts were invited from every United Nations sub-region (United Nations 2011), no experts from the following sub-regions took part: Southern Africa, Middle Africa, Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Australia, Central Asia and Western Asia. This was significant because many of these sub-regions are heavily involved in physical activity and sedentary behaviour research. Consequently, caution should be applied when recommending that the identified research priorities truly provide a global perspective. Nonetheless, these research priorities provide an international context from which priorities at the regional, national and local levels can be developed.

In addition the priorities were set for the broad area of child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Due to the generality of this topic, it may be that the research priorities are not relevant when conducting research into minority populations. For example, children and adolescents with disabilities may warrant different research issues not identified in this study.

Implications for research

We hope that the identification of a set of ranked research priorities may contribute to more co-ordinated international research. For example, research priorities can help inform post-graduate students regarding where the current evidence gaps exist. This may be especially helpful for researchers who reside in less developed or marginalised research regions. In addition, encouraging more guided research can help to conceptualise how findings can be used as a basis for policy decisions. Lastly, research priorities can help to direct valuable funding into priority areas and away from studies on over-researched or lower priority topics.

This study engaged two panels of study experts in a three-round Delphi communication procedure. The outcome of this procedure was the identification of a ranked set of 29 research priorities in child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviour. For example, the top three ranked priorities were: developing effective and sustainable interventions to increase children’s physical activity long-term; policy and/or environmental change and their influence on children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour; and prospective, longitudinal studies of the independent effects of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on health. We hope these research priorities will help inform the spectrum of future studies undertaken, guide post-graduate study choices, guide allocation of funding to priority areas and assist with policy decisions.

Ekelund E, Heian F, Hagen KB, Abbott J, Nordheim L: Exercise to improve self-esteem in children and young people. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004, Art. No. CD: 003683, doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003683.pub2, Iss. 1

Book   Google Scholar  

Lubans D, Morgan P, Cliff D, Barnett L, Okely A: Fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents: review of associated health benefits. Sports Med. 2010, 40 (12): 1019-1035. 10.2165/11536850-000000000-00000.

Article   Google Scholar  

Sallis J, Prochaska J, Taylor W: A review of correlates of physical activity of children and adolescents. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2000, 32 (5): 963-975.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Chinapaw M, Proper K, Brug J, et al: Relationship between young people’s sedentary behaviour and biomedical health indicators; a systematic review of prospective studies. Obes Rev. 2011, 12: 621-625. 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2011.00865.x.

Sibley B, Etnier J: The relationship between physical activity and cognition in children: a meta-analysis. Paediatr Exerc Sci. 2003, 15 (2): 243-256.

Google Scholar  

Bauman A, Owen N, Leslie E: Physical activity and health outcomes: epidemiological evidence, national guidelines and public health initiatives. Aust J Nutr Diet. 2000, 57: 229-232.

Katzmarzyk P: Physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health; paradigm paralysis or paradigm shift?. Diabetes. 2010, 59: 2717-2725. 10.2337/db10-0822.

World Health Organization: World Health Organization global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. 2004, Geneva: World Health Organization

Parsons T, Power C, Logan S, Summerbell C: Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review. Int J Obes Relat Disord. 1999, 23 (8): 1-107.

Van Sluijs E, McMinn A, Griffin S: Effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity in children and adolescents: systematic review of controlled trials. Br J Med. 2007, 42 (8): 653-657.

Bull F, Bauman A, Hallal P, Kohl H, Tremblay M: A Prioritised Agenda for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Disease. Paper 3. Research priorities. Physical activity with a focus on low and middle income countries. 2010, [ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pptwZodFXI8J:www.world-heart-federation.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Advocacy/Resources/Meetings_-_Activities _and_Partnerships/Research%2520priorities%2520-Physical%2520activity_01.pdf]

Nchinda T: Research capacity development for CVD prevention: the role of partnerships. Ethn Dis. 2003, 3 (2): 40-44.

Evenson K, Mota J: Progress and future directions on physical activity research among youth. J Phys Act Heal. 2011, 8 (2): 149-151.

Fulton J, Burgeson C, Perry G, Sherry B, Galuska D, Alexander M, Wechsler H, Caspersen C: Assessment of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in preschool-age children: priorities for research. Paediatr Exerc Sci. 2001, 13: 113-126.

Mountjoy M, Engebretsen L, Ekelund U, Brandl Bedenbeck HP, Boreham C, Biddle S, Armstrong N, Bo Andersen L, Mountjoy M, Hardman K, Hills A, Kahlmeier S, Kriemler S, Lambert E, Ljungqvist A, Matsudo V, McKary H, Micheli L, Pate R, Riddoch C, Schamasch P, Sundberg CJ, Tomkinson G, van Sluijs E, van Mechelen W: International Olympic Committee consensus statement on the health and fitness of young people through physical activity and sport. Br J Sports Med. 2011, 45: 839-848. 10.1136/bjsports-2011-090228.

Yousuf M: Using experts’ opinions through Delphi technique. Pract Assess Res Eval. 2007, 12 (4): Available online: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=12%26;n=4

Dalkey N, Helmer O: An experimental application of the Delphi method to the use of experts. Manag Sci. 1963, 9 (3): 458-467. 10.1287/mnsc.9.3.458.

Linstone H, Turoff M: The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications. 2002, New Jersey: New Jersey’s Department of Information Systems

Sharma D, Nair S, Balasubramanian R: Analytical search of problems and prospects of power sector through Delphi study: case study of Kerala State, India. Energy State. 2003, 31: 1245-1255.

Sinha I, Smyth R, Williamson P: Using the Delphi technique to determine which outcomes to measure in clinical trials: recommendations for the future based on a systematic review of existing studies. Public Libr Sci Med. 2011, 8 (1): doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000393

Custer R, Scarcella J, Stewart B: The modified Delphi technique: a rotational modification. J Vocat Tech Educ. 1999, 15 (2): 1-10.

Strong W, Malina R, Blimkie C, Daniels S, Dishman R, Gutin B, Hergenroeder A, Must A, Nixon P, Pivarnik J, Rowland T, Trost S, Trudeau F: Evidence based physical activity for school-age youth. J Pediatr. 2005, 146 (6): 732-737. 10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.01.055.

Must A, Tybor D: Physical activity and sedentary behavior: a review of longitudinal studies of weight and adiposity in youth. Int J Obes. 2005, 29: 84-96.

Delbecq A, Van den Ven A, Gustafson D: Group techniques for program planning: A guide to nominal group and Delphi processes. 1975, Glenview: IL Scott Foresman

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Health and Use of Time Group at the University of South Australia.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Health and Use of Time (HUT) Group, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Lauren Gillis, Grant Tomkinson & Timothy Olds

Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Carla Moreira & Jorge Mota

Ergonomics Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Candice Christie

Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

Claudio Nigg

Institute of Human Performance, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Ester Cerin

MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK

Esther Van Sluijs

The Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Gareth Stratton

School of Physical and Health Education, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Ian Janssen

University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji, Islands

Jeremy Dorovolomo

Physical Activity for Health Research Group, School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Jordanhill, Glasgow, UK

John J Reilly

Department of Physical Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Kashef Zayed

Physical and Health Education and Department of Psychology, School of Exercise Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

Kent Kawalski

Center for Research in Childhood Health, Institute of Sport Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 5230, Denmark

Lars Bo Andersen

Education Faculty, University of Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, Badajoz, Spain

Manuel Carrizosa

Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

Mark Tremblay

Physical Education & Sports Science, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Michael Chia

Department of Social Science, Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand

Mike Hamlin

Centre for Children and Young People's Health and Well-Being, School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Non Eleri Thomas

Clinical Trials Research Unit, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

Ralph Maddison

School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK

Stuart Biddle

Institute of Youth Sport, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE, 11 3TU, UK

Trish Gorely

Department of Exercise, Kenyatta University, Recreation and Sport Science, Nairobi, Kenya

Vincent Onywera

Department of Public & Occupational Health, EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Willem Van Mechelen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Grant Tomkinson .

Additional information

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

The study was conceived by GT and TO. LG was primarily responsible for conducting the participant selection process and the three rounds of data collection. LG, GT and TO were each involved in data analysis. LG produced the first draft of the paper with all other authors providing sections and critically reviewing the paper. All authors approved submission.

Authors’ original submitted files for images

Below are the links to the authors’ original submitted files for images.

Authors’ original file for figure 1

Authors’ original file for figure 2, authors’ original file for figure 3, authors’ original file for figure 4, rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Gillis, L., Tomkinson, G., Olds, T. et al. Research priorities for child and adolescent physical activity and sedentary behaviours: an international perspective using a twin-panel Delphi procedure. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 10 , 112 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-112

Download citation

Received : 26 March 2013

Accepted : 09 September 2013

Published : 24 October 2013

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-112

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Physical activity
• Sedentary behaviour
• Research priorities
• Adolescents

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

ISSN: 1479-5868

• Submission enquiries: Access here and click Contact Us
• General enquiries: [email protected]

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• My Bibliography
• Collections
• Citation manager

Save citation to file

Email citation, add to collections.

• Create a new collection
• Add to an existing collection

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search, create a file for external citation management software, your rss feed.

• Search in PubMed
• Search in NLM Catalog
• Add to Search

Research on Child and Adolescent Development and Public Policy in Latin America

Affiliation.

• 1 Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
• PMID: 27254830
• DOI: 10.1002/cad.20156

This commentary discusses the implication of child and adolescent development research for public policy in Latin America. As illustrated by the articles in this special issue, even though the research of child and adolescent development in Latin America is making significant progress, still more research is needed. Developmental research in the region faces the challenge of uncovering the mechanisms that affect child development in a context of high levels of poverty and inequality. In addition, researchers in the region should be particularly careful in using appropriate and rigorous methods, improving the design and adaptation of instruments that measure child and adolescent development, developing longitudinal datasets, and looking for causal evidence. Children and adolescents in Latin America will benefit from a further expansion of developmental research. Research in child and adolescent development using data from Latin America can advise policy makers and help improve the design and evaluation of interventions and public policies that promote child and adolescent well-being in the region.

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

• Strengthening vaccination policies in Latin America: an evidence-based approach. Tapia-Conyer R, Betancourt-Cravioto M, Saucedo-Martínez R, Motta-Murguía L, Gallardo-Rincón H. Tapia-Conyer R, et al. Vaccine. 2013 Aug 20;31(37):3826-33. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.12.062. Epub 2013 Jan 25. Vaccine. 2013. PMID: 23357196 Review.
• Childhood Poverty and Cognitive Development in Latin America in the 21st Century. Segretin MS, Hermida MJ, Prats LM, Fracchia CS, Ruetti E, Lipina SJ. Segretin MS, et al. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2016 Jun;2016(152):9-29. doi: 10.1002/cad.20162. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2016. PMID: 27254824 Review.
• Child and Adolescent Development in Latin America: Introduction to the Special Issue. Preiss DD. Preiss DD. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2016 Jun;2016(152):7-8. doi: 10.1002/cad.20155. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2016. PMID: 27254823 No abstract available.
• Perspectives of intellectual disability in Latin American countries: epidemiology, policy, and services for children and adults. Mercadante MT, Evans-Lacko S, Paula CS. Mercadante MT, et al. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2009 Sep;22(5):469-74. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e32832eb8c6. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2009. PMID: 19561502 Review.
• The importance of systematizing migration information for making policy: recent initiatives and possibilities for Latin America and the Caribbean. Maguid A. Maguid A. Rev OIM Sobre Migr Am Lat. 1993 Dec;11(3):5-67. Rev OIM Sobre Migr Am Lat. 1993. PMID: 12157963 English, Spanish.
• Search in MeSH

Related information

Linkout - more resources, full text sources, other literature sources.

• scite Smart Citations
• MedlinePlus Consumer Health Information
• MedlinePlus Health Information

Research Materials

• NCI CPTC Antibody Characterization Program

• Citation Manager

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Safety and outcome of children, adolescents and young adults participating in phase i/ii clinical oncology trials: a 9-year center experience.

• 1 Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain
• 2 Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Niño Jesús University Children's Hospital, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
• 3 Fundación Biomédica, Hospital de La Princesa, Madrid, Catalonia, Spain
• 4 Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona, Balearic Islands, Spain
• 5 Accelerate, brussels, Belgium
• 6 Regional University Hospital of Malaga, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
• 7 Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, Valencia, Valencia, Spain
• 8 Niño Jesús University Children's Hospital, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
• 9 Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

95%CI: 9-15), higher in target-specific versus non-target-specific trials (14 vs 6 months; p=<0.001).Discussion: A significant and increasing number of patients have been included in early clinical trials, suggesting that both oncologists and families consider it valuable to be referred to specialized Units to access new therapies. Moreover, our data suggests that participation in early clinical trials, although not without potential toxicities, might have a positive impact on individual outcomes.

Keywords: Pediatric hematology and oncology, clinical trials, Drug Development, clinical research, Access to innovation

Received: 25 Apr 2024; Accepted: 13 Aug 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Pujol Manresa, Buendía López, Andión, Herrero, Lassaletta, Ramírez, Ruano, Hernández-Marqués, Varo, de Rojas, Cortés Hernández, Verdú-Amorós, Martín Prado, Artigas, Redondo, Ruiz Pato, Herreros López, SEVILLA NAVARRO, Madero, Moreno, Bautista Sirvent and Rubio San Simón. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Lucas Moreno, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.