A View of Health from the Adolescent’s Perspective

Abstract

Abstract Many authors, including those in this book, have suggested that more attention be paid to the phenomenological aspects of adolescent health and development. Such an approach would examine health from the adolescent’s perspective, exploring the meaning of health to the adolescent, motivations for health-related behaviors, how health communications are interpreted and acted on, and how health behaviors are experienced. This type of research inquiry is customary in disciplines such as anthropology and education but is infrequently employed as a scientific tool in psychology or medicine. There are, however, compelling arguments for extending our research on adolescent health issues to include phenomenological inquiries.