The Health and Risk Communication area addresses policy issues affecting risks to young people’s health and development. APPC’s research in this area aims to promote healthy youth development by educating the public, scholarly community and policy makers about the latest scientific advances in reducing risks to adolescent health. It does so by convening conferences of experts, conducting national surveys, performing externally funded research, and communicating the findings to scholars and the public through books, scientific reports, and on the internet.
Research in this area has included tobacco, alcohol and drug use, suicide, sexual behavior, the use of social media, and political activism. Current areas of study include gun violence in entertainment media, risk factors for teen drivers, and policy questions regarding drug use. The Adolescent Mental Health Initiative is an ongoing project which in 2017 released the second edition of Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders by Oxford University Press. The initiative, supported by The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, also publishes books for parents and teens about adolescent mental health conditions that are available free for download here.
The Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute (formerly the Adolescent Risk Communication Institute), established in 2002 with a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, conducts the CHAMP/CHAMPION project with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to identify historical trends in risky behaviors and Culture of Health behaviors in movies and television.
