The Adolescent Brain: A Work in Progress

When the National Campaign first set up shop in the mid-1990s, a serious commitment was made to basing the entire enterprise on science and research. It is strongly believed then, and still do, that when an organizations deals with a complicated and controversial issue such as teen pregnancy, a solid grounding in the facts significantly strengthens the overall enterprise. In that spirit, one of the very first advisory groups established by the National Campaign was the Task Force on Effective Programs and Research. To this day, this Task Force remains a critical part of the National Campaign’s work, and it was under its auspices that the paper presented here was developed.

Two of the most important tasks that the Research Task Force and the National Campaign have addressed are (1) trying to understand the factors within teens themselves and their broader environment that help to determine teen sexual
behavior and pregnancy, and then, based on such insights, (2) outlining approaches to teen pregnancy prevention that are likely to be most effective. This basic line of inquiry has brought into contact with countless teens and parents, advocates and experts in the field, and people who fund, run, and study intervention programs.

The paper presented here, authored by international experts in adolescent brain development Drs. Daniel Weinberger, Jay Giedd, and Brita Elvevåg, begins to fill this gap by making a very simple point: neurological development is an important dimension of overall adolescent development, and efforts to understand, guide and help teens should be based in part on a deeper appreciation of adolescent neurobiology. Being very careful scientists, the authors do not overstate what is known and they do not move immediately or carelessly into recommendations for policy or practice.