[Accumulation of data about adolescence by nurses: period from 1983 to 1996]

In the last ten years adolescence has been object of study of many researchers and considered by National and International Organizations as an age band with priority to actions of promotion, prevention and protection. Many factors contributed to this concern with adolescence, between them, we can emphasize the importance of this populational contingent that represents 30% of world population, besides the questions of precocious pregnancy, AIDS and drugs. As nurse researchers, we are interested in experiencing and characterizing quantitatively and qualitatively the scientific production about adolescence in nursing, using as source of data collection the national specific nursing periodicals. Data obtained in this research show that the adolescence theme is not explored by the nursing staff, and the most important aspects are related to sexuality.