Child & Adolescent Health Yearbook 2013

The term, adolescence, can be traced to the 15th century and is based on Latin etymology; adolescere referring to "growing into maturity." The current term, adolescence, identifies a critical period of human life that allows sufficient maturity for the human being to leave childhood dependency and pass through a dramatic period of immense physiological, psychological, and sociological consequences. The adolescent must accept the failures and successes of childhood with the initiation of puberty and in the end, start his or her adult life as central nervous system maturity occurs. The tremendous peaks of growth and development are only exceeded by those seen in utero and in early childhood. This yearbook is focused on adolescence with a chapter on health aspects in this time period, health risks, bullying and the new issue of internet addiction in adolescence, which we hope you will find of interest.