Introduction

John Coleman is a psychologist whose primary interest is adolescence. He is the Founder of the Trust for the Study of Adolescence (now renamed Young People in Focus) and was the Director of the organisation from 1989 until he retired in 2005. From 2005 to 2006 he held a post as a Policy Advisor in the Department of Health, and since October 2006 he has been a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford.

Career

John took his first degree from McGill University in Montreal. He completed his PhD at University College, London in 1966, and completed his training as a clinical psychologist at the Middlesex Hospital in London the following year. He was appointed a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the London Hospital Medical College in 1967, and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1971. In 1983 he launched the Sussex Youth Trust, an organisation providing residential care for disturbed teenagers, and then in 1989 he founded the Trust for the Study of Adolescence in Brighton. John’s pioneering work has been widely recognised, and in 2001 he was awarded an OBE for services to youth justice.

Publications

John has published widely on the subject of children and adolescents. He is best known for his textbook “The nature of adolescence”, the third edition of which was written jointly with Leo Hendry and published in 1999. This book has been translated into 6 languages, and is published by Routledge. John is the author of 18 books and over 50 academic papers. He is the Editor of the Routledge series “Adolescence and society”. His most recent books are “Adolescence and health” edited with Leo Hendry and Marion Kloep (Wiley Blackwell, 2007) and “Adolescence: risk and resilience” edited with Ann Hagell (Wiley Blackwell, 2007). He has also served as Guest Editor of a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education entitled “Well-being in schools”, published in June 2009.

Links to other organisations

John was for many years the Editor of the Journal of Adolescence, and is currently a Consulting Editor. He is Deputy Chair of the Independent Advisory Group for the Teenage Pregnancy Unit which is based in the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He is a Trustee of the Family and Parenting Institute and Chair of the Association for Young People’s Health.

Current Research

John’s current research interests include emotional health and well-being, the parenting of adolescents, and the impact of new technologies on young people. He currently holds an ESRC seminar series award for his work on new technologies, details of which can be found at www.education.ox.ac.uk/esrcseries/home/

John Coleman