Adolescence; a Crucial Transitional Stage in Human Life

Adolescence is a transitional stage in physical and psychological development that is generally confined to the period from puberty to legal adulthood. It is also a period of multiple transitions involving education, training, employment and unemployment, as well as transitions from one living circumstance to another. A thorough understanding of adolescence in a society depends on the availability of information and awareness about its various perspectives including psychological, historical, sociological, and cultural backgrounds. The ability of understanding, appreciating, and digesting the experience and knowledge of adults by adolescents varies from someone to another. Hence, conduction of well-planned studies and researches is crucial to understand the different disturbing issues of adolescence as a stage. The proper utilization of the outcomes and conclusions of such studies and researches is a cornerstone of success in raising our adolescents to be healthy adults both physically and mentally.

Accordingly, adolescence is considered as a crucial stage in human life that needs utmost parental care, guidance, and empathy. Only with effective caregiving we can guarantee raising our adolescents to be healthy adults who can share in improving our societies and being their leaders for a promising and a better future. Hence, the targets of conducting an efficient adolescents’ health care entail carrying out systematic measures for preventing, detecting, and treating any physical and or mental disorders among youth.

The journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior is concerned with a wide range of fields such as Children’s Behavior, Child Mental Health, Child Psychology, Counselling Neuroscience, Parental Care, Societal Influence, Adult Sexual Behavior, Adult Psychology, Risky Behavior, Child Anxiety, Anger Management, Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and many more. The Journal in its Volume 4, Issue 6 publishes articles analysing various topics such as factors contributing to adolescents’ deviant behaviors with respect to the social and environmental aspects, indigenous education and biophilia, alcohol behaviors in adolescents, music and emotions of teenagers in Benin, and a pilot study about fruits and vegetables with and without appearance modification.

Cases of deviant behaviors among adolescents are rampant; what actually perpetuates deviant behavior among them is questionable. Nkhata and Mwale [1], conducted a qualitative and quantitative study in Dowa district; central region of Malawi. Students who come from single parent families were more prone to deviant acts than those who come from both parents families. Authors suggested that implementing counselling discipline in secondary schools is a proper and effective way of minimising crimes among school going adolescents.

The physical and symbolic distance between nature and Western human societies is both a cause and a consequence of growing urbanization since the late nineteenth century. Currently, there is a consensus that the actual environmental crisis is resulting from human misuse of the environment and its creatures with subsequent disconnection of people from nature. It is evident that the characteristics of Western urban culture have its percussions on children's quality of life. Profice et al. [2], studied the cognitive and affective aspects of the indigenous children's environmental perception. They have highlighted the role of indigenous school practices in improving biophilia, environmental awareness, and narrowing the gap between urban children and nature with enhanced prevention of physical and mental problems among them.

The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment is an index of three perceived parental security dimensions in late adolescence and early adulthood. Previous research has suggested a correlational relationship between attachment scores and alcohol use behaviors among adolescents. Mckay et al. [3], presented a person-oriented analysis of the association between perceived parental security and alcohol behaviors in Northern Irish adolescents. When compared to peers with high security profiles, adolescents with low security profiles were found to be 8 times more likely to be moderate and 55 times more likely to be problematic drinkers than abstainers. Finally, the authors had no data for socioeconomic status of the studied sample and recommended future studies that include such data to delineate the effect of socioeconomic status on both parental security and alcohol use behaviors.

Music is a universal language which represents an essential communication channel between people across the globe with different preference of its type and style according to age and cultural background. To analyze emotional influence of music on teenagers and their mental health care needs in Benin, Fiossi et al. [4] conducted their study. Music was a privileged language for teenagers as they waded through this tumultuous period of their lives, a period full of emotions that they found it difficult to express and to manage. It is an efficient tool that deserves to be considered from the mental health care point of view. Music can thus be not only a means of better understanding of teenagers but also of helping them. Listening to teenagers and discussing their favourite type of music can provide them with a cheap but an effective therapeutic strategy for pediatric mental disorders.

Low intake of fruits and vegetables among children is a public health concern that correlates highly with the development of childhood obesity. Many previous studies have addressed that children dislike fruits and vegetables because of their sensory characteristics. Intervention focusing on sensory modification of those vital nutritional elements may have its positive impact on enhancing their preference by children. Chung et al. [5], modified the appearance of 10 fruits and vegetables to resemble snacks. However, as the way of food preparation changed, other sensory characteristics of it changed as well. A sensory evaluation of 12 children was then conducted comparing 10 original and 10 modified foods. The obtained results revealed that modified eggplant and pumpkin gained favourable ratings among studied children. Appetizing and repulsive sensory attributes were identified through a corresponding analysis to facilitate future studies on food modification.