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What are adolescence and puberty?

Adolescents are individuals, either man or woman, who are in the middle of a transition period between childhood
and adult. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) classifcation, the age of this group is between 10
to 19 years old, whereas the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that youth is between 15 and 24 (the term of “young people” refers
itself to the composite age group of 10­24 years).Compared to other stages of the life cycle, adolescence is the most complex period for individuals as it is
the period of psychological transition between childhood and adulthood. Adolescence boundaries are less well­defned than puberty ones as it
refers more to the whole psychoso-cial adolescents’ development.

GOOD TO REMEMBER!
Changes during adolescence are normal and will be experienced by every human being!

Puberty itself could be defned as the process of physical changes and sexual maturation by which a child’s body becomes an adult body
capable of reproduction. Besides these enormous physical changes, adolescents also experience emotional/psychological changes that
clearly appear in their attitudes and behaviors.Adolescents’ health in Indonesia. In Indonesia, adolescents repre-sent 20 % of the Indonesian population, which is a substantial rate. In the early 90’s, adolescents’ abuse of Napza (narcotics, psychotropics and other addictions) and HIV/AIDS
infections were quite unusual.

GOOD TO REMEMBER !
Adolescents represent 20 % of the Indonesian population.

Things have now changed. Ado-lescents are currently more and more involved in risky behaviors, due to several underlying causes
like poverty of families (some adolescents can not attend school and have to work), rapid social changes or media infuence. This complicated
- and competitive – situation makes them struggle for life. At the same time, we should not forget that adolescence period is fragile and that
young people are vulnerable, especially young girls. Moreover, infuen­ces (positive or negative) outside the family ones become increasingly
important. All these reasons are the leading causes of adolescents’ risky behaviors, which mainly are:
- risky sexual behaviors which
- consequences are sexual trans-mitted diseases or early/at risk pregnancies,
- drugs abuse (tobacco and other substances),
- accidents, injuries,
- violence.

In the meantime, adolescents’ knowledge of risky behaviors and their impacts on health (reproductive health in particular) is still limited in Nanggroe
Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province.This situation is mainly due to the lack of communication and information from parents, health workers and the
community, as well as limited initiatives from the government. Why do adolescents need care and support? Most of the time, adolescents re-
fuse to be called “children”, but they also can not be considered as “adults” as they are going through a transi-tion period. It also means that adolescents may no longer beneft from the attention and care that usually goes to children, but they may not get the protections associated with
being an adult either. As adolescents remain fragile and need care, coun-seling from health care providers as well as a safe and supportive environment are necessary, in order for them to grow and develop. In order for this support to be effective, health workers should have a thorough
knowledge of this particular stage of life. There is also an urgent need of a spontaneous and integrated public management of adolescents’ health
care and adolescents’ reproductive health in particular.

GOOD TO REMEMBER !
Adolescents should be informed of their physical and emotional changes, and well monitored.Thus, health workers should
have a thorough knowledge of the puberty stage.

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