Focuses on developmental transitions during adolescence and young adulthood and relates them to risks and benefits for young people's health and well-being. It advocates the broadening of the concept of health promotion to include assistance with negotiating the several changes that occur as individuals move into and out of adolescence.

1. Negotiating developmental transitions during adolescence and young adulthood: health risks and opportunities John Schulenberg, Jennifer L. Maggs, Klaus Hurrelmann; Part I. Sociocultural, Physical and Cognitive Foundations of Adolescent Transitions: 2. Cultural, historical and subcultural contexts of adolescence: implications for health and development Lisa J. Crockett; 3. Social change and adolescent well-being: healthy country, healthy teens Peter Noack and Barbel Kracke; 4. Self-reported maturational timing and adaptation in adolescence Rainer K. Silbereisen and Barbel Kracke; 5. Adolescents' decisions about risks: a cognitive perspective Ruth Beyth-Marom and Baruch Fischhoff; Part II. Affiliation Transitions and Health: 6. The family as health risk and opportunity: a focus on divorce and working families Nancy L. Galambos and Marion F. Ehrenberg; 7. Transformations in peer relationships at adolescence: implications for health-related behavior B. Bradford Brown, M. Margaret Dolcini and Amy Leventhal; 8. Sexuality and developmental transitions during adolescence Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Roberta Paikoff; 9. Child bearing during adolescence: mental health risks and opportunities Cleopatra Howard Caldwell and Toni C. Antonucci; 10. Marriage, divorce, and parenthood during the transition to young adulthood: impacts on drug use and abuse Jerald G. Bachman, Katherine N. Wadsworth, Patrick M. O'Malley, John Schulenberg and Lloyd D. Johnston; Part III. Achievement Transitions and Health: 11. The association of school transitions in early adolescence with developmental trajectories through High School Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Sarah E. Lord, Robert W. Roeser, Bonnie L. Barber and Debra M. Hernandez Jozefowicz; 12. Transitions into part-time work: health risks and opportunities Michael D. Finch, Jeylan T. Mortimer and Seongryeol Ryu; 13. Alcohol and binge drinking as goal-directed action during the transition to post-secondary education Jennifer L. Maggs; 14. Health risks and deviance in the transition from school to work Eduard Matt, Lydia Seus and Karl F. Schumann; Part IV. Identity Transitions and Health: 15. Self definition and mental health during adolescence and young adulthood Jarik-Erik Nurmi; 16. Ethnic and racial identity development and mental health Jean S. Phinney and Eric L. Kohatsu; 17. Religion and adolescent health compromising behavior John M. Wallace Jr. and David R. Williams; Part V. Intervention: Altering Transition-Health Risk Connections: 18. Promoting mental health during the transition into adolescence Anne C. Petersen, Nancy Leffert, Barbara Graham, Jan Alwin and Shuai Ding; 19. Preventing health compromising behaviors among youth and promoting their positive development: a developmental-contextual perspective Richard M. Lerner, Charles W. Ostrum and Melissa A. Freel; 20. Developmental transitions during adolescence: health promotion implications Jennifer L. Maggs, John Schulenberg and Klaus Hurrelmann.