Book excerpt: This three volume work presents the Office of Technology's assessment of the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including those living in poverty, racial and ethnic minority groups, Native Americans, and rural adolescents. Specific topics covered are identifying risk and protective factors for adolescent health problems, evaluating options in the organization of health services and technologies available to adolescents, assessing options in the conduct of national health surveys to improve collection of adolescent health statistics, and identifying gaps in research on the health and behavior of adolescents.