YouthLens #39: Very Young Adolescents

Early adolescence is a period of rapid physical, cognitive and social changes and the time when young people form their personal identities. Very young adolescents (VYAs) — those between the ages of 10 and 14 — acquire information, explore values and gender roles, develop attitudes and experiment with behaviors that have the potential to affect their present and future health and well-being. Among the 1.8 billion youth worldwide, about one-third are considered VYAs.

Produced by FHI 360 on behalf of USAID’s Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG), this brief focuses on evaluated programs and emerging research regarding VYAs and summarizes recommendations developed during the 2013 IYWG Technical Consultation on VYAs co-hosted by IRH on the next wave of research, programs, policy and advocacy. The full set of recommendations is also available online here.