Application of the life-span developmental perspective to nursing research with adolescents

Phenomena of interest to nurse researchers include the responses of persons across the life span to changes in their lives related to conditions of health and illness. The topic of this article is the life span stage known as adolescence, and the article is grounded in the premise that questions related to the effects of chronic illness at different points in the adolescent life course (i.e., early, middle, and late adolescence) are best studied from a life-span developmental perspective. First, the traditional developmental theories, the commonly held world views from which they emerged, and their relative contributions to research with adolescents are reviewed. The life-span developmental perspective is then discussed, with particular emphasis on its usefulness in guiding research aimed at answering questions that address change in the behavioral responses of adolescents to conditions of health and illness.