SAHM 2020 Annual Meeting
March 11-14, 2020
Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina
San Diego, CA, USA
Adolescent Health: Transforming Risk to Wellness
Adolescence is a time of exploration and experimentation as youth express increased interest in the experiences outside of their family circle. Some risk-taking is necessary for neurocognitive development as adolescents move towards autonomy, learning from their errors and building heavily on the rewards. Furthermore, risk-taking and its consequences are shaped by social and community context. How is the characterization that adolescents are ‘risky’ harming their embrace by essential members of their communities and safety network? How can adolescent health and medicine professionals embrace the notion of risk, while helping youth differentiate between those that are health affirming versus those that may result in harm? What innovative methods can be used to measure and promote healthy risk-taking behaviors among adolescents? How can we build stronger safety nets to catch them if they fall? How can we protect youth from disparities in the outcomes and responses to their normative risk-taking behaviors? In this meeting, multidisciplinary professionals from throughout the world will assemble to share, discuss, critique, and generate strategies to transform risk and promote wellness among young people. We invite you to expand and enrich our conceptualizations and practices by engaging in an exchange of ideas from multiple perspectives and cultures.