Summary Objectives Our objectives were to study the perception of adolescence in the Tunisian sociocutltural context through a 100 medical and paramedic staff and to focus on the cognitive mistakes related to adolescence. Subjects and methods Fifty doctors and 50 paramedics participated in the study. They had completed an autoquestionnaire including 24 items on adolescence. Results Eighty-four percent did not succeed in answering a minimum of 75% of the items, in conformity with the scientific data, with a rate of correct answers significantly lower among the paramedics (P = 0.029). The cognitive mistakes were about the adolescence crisis, the relationship parent–adolescent and the consumption of psychoactive substances. There was a significant difference between doctors’ and paramedics’ responses concerning the humiliation of young persons (P < 0.01), the educational role of punishment (P < 0.001), the adolescents’ sexuality (P < 0.05) and the occasional consumption of alcoholic drinks (P < 0.001). Conclusion Our study demonstrated a relatively high frequency of cognitive mistakes related to adolescence among the medical staff studied. The readjustment of their training would play a crucial role in awareness of parents in the intricacies of adolescence, in order to help them support their children in this period of life.