Adolescence

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This article is about a stage of life. For the punk band, see The Adolescents.

Adolescence is the transitional stage of development between childhood and full adulthood, representing the period of time during which a person is biologically adult but emotionally not at full maturity. The ages which are considered to be part of adolescence vary by culture. In the United States, adolescence is generally considered to begin around age 12-13, and end at 19-20. By contrast, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 20 years of age.

"Adolescence" is a cultural and social phenomenon and therefore its endpoints are not easily tied to physical milestones. The word derives from the Latin verb adolescere meaning "to grow up." The time is identified with dramatic changes in the body, along with developments in a person's psychology and academic career. In the onset of adolescence, children usually complete elementary school and enter secondary education, such as middle school or high school.

During this period of life, most children go through the physical stages of puberty, which often begins between the ages of nine and thirteen. Most cultures regard people as becoming adults at various ages of the teenage years. For example, Jewish tradition considers males to be adult members of the community at age 13 and females at age 12, and this transition is celebrated in the Bat Mitzvah for girls, and the Bar Mitzvah for boys. Usually, there is a formal age of majority when adolescents formally become adults. For example, Japan's celebration of this is called seijin shiki (lit. "adult ceremony").

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Puberty

Portrait Of an adolescent girl
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Portrait Of an adolescent girl

Puberty, occurring in the beginning of adolescence, is the stage in the human lifespan when a child begins to develop adult secondary sex characteristics as their hormone balance shifts towards an adult state. Briefly, this is caused by the pituitary gland that secretes hormones into the blood stream, which triggers growth in the gonads: the girl's ovaries and the boy's testicles. In female adolescents, the first menstrual period is called menarche.

In most Western European countries and the U.S., the average age of menarche fell in the last century, primarily because of increased caloric intake and climatic changes. Girls tend to go through puberty a year earlier than boys.

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Preteens

The word preteen describes a child a bit younger than a teenager; perhaps between the ages of about 8 and 12. The neologism tween has the same meaning, but isn't in general use as either a colloquial or scientific term. This word comes from the age being between that of a young child and a teenager.

Preteens are increasingly a specifically targeted market segment by business, because they tend to maintain the preferences they develop at this age. Even mobile phones are targeted toward this group. Also, because preteens are almost invariantly financially dependent (and because less autonomy is expected of them, in the United States, than of teenagers), they have access to parental income that is often more abundant than that of most teenagers and young adults.

Pre-pubescence is the age where children begin to have more responsibilities and begin to want more respect as people. Because of the emergence of greater awareness of social orders and groups, this is a very unstable area of development. Preteens often feel like they're not one thing or another and feel left out. To a girl approaching her teen years, fashion and hygiene (and sometimes the eating disorders that develop as a result of over-concern about these things) come to be a bigger part of her life, and boys start to look good. To a preteen boy, sports and hanging out tend to matter more in the late childhood. Early adolescence is practically childhood, but the child has grown up slightly into a more mature person.

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Teenagers

A teenager or teen is a person whose age is a number ending in "-teen" in the English language: that is to say, someone from the age of thirteen to the age of nineteen. The word is of recent origin, only having appeared in the mid 20th century. In Western culture, a distinct youth culture has developed. This culture is often considered inferior to the mainstream culture, or in rebellion against it, and is thus often referred to as a subculture or counterculture.

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Discrimination against adolescents

Some adolescents and adults believe that people between the ages of 10 and 18 (or 21 or 25) are subjected to unjust discrimination. This form of discrimination is increasingly referred to as adultism. It is also called ageism, though that is simply prejudice on the grounds of age, not youth particularly. The underlying notion is that adolescents should be treated with equal respect as individuals by adults, institutions, and the law on the basis of their humanity, rather than being seen as "second-class citizens," intellectually inferior, or as the property of adults. This discrimination takes many forms, including lack of citizenship rights such as voting and the right to hold political office, as well as cultural, economic, and systemic disenfranchisement. At the same time, most adolescents are required to pay adult prices for admission to entertainment facilities (theatres, cinemas, amusement parks), and for transportation. There is also ongoing discrimination against adolescents in the areas of incarceration, education, and military recruitment, particularly youth of color and low-income youth. These young people face systemic and cultural barriers that often precede their right to due process in the law and equal educational opportunities. Research has illustrated wide discrepancies in the rates of African American and Latino youth incarceration in comparison to white youth with similar crimes; similar aberrations affect low-income youth. Statistical evidence also proves wide discrepancies between youth of color and white youth in the high school graduation rates and in higher education, as well as in military recruitment rates. They may be an invisible age group due to the lack of tolerance of teenagers.

Research has proven that social stratification between age groups causes stereotyping and generalization; for instance, the media-perpetuated myth that all adolescents are equally immature, violent and rebellious. This has led to growing number of youth, academics, researchers, and other adults rallying against adultism and ageism; some have organized education programs, protest statements, and organizations.

Adolescence is used as an easy target by the media. More often than not, figures and statements portrayed as fact and reality are incorrect and misleading if not down right false and deceptive. Some individuals have taken a stand against this mass-generational slander, such as Mike Males in his article "Media Myths about Teenagers".

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Psychology of adolescents

Maturity in body leads to an interest in sexual activities, sometimes leading to teenage pregnancy. Since teens may not be emotionally mature enough or financially able to support children, the latter is usually considered problematic.

At this age there is also a greater probability of drug and alcohol use, or mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, eating disorders and depression. The unstable emotions or lack of emotional intelligence among some adolescents may also lead to youth crime.

Searching for a unique identity is one of the problems that adolescents often face.

At this age, role models such as sports players, rock stars and movie and television performers are very popular, and adolescents often express a desire to be like their chosen role model. For this reason, people who are considered role models are often heavily criticized for their behavior, because in our time they are, we might say almost without exception, not socially conscious enough for the standard to which most children are held by most parents today. Of course, this doesn't mean that proper upbringing and an inspired life are contradictions; but there rages an argument about how soon one must make room for the other.

G. Stanley Hall denoted this period as one of "Storm and Stress". Conflict at this developemental stage is normal and not unusual. Margaret Mead, on the other hand, attributed adolescent behavior to their culture. Piaget attributed this stage in developement with greatly increased cognitive abilities, which can cause conflict as the individual has gained the cognitive ability to reason, dispute, and theorize on an adult level.

The information processing theory, on the other hand, does not see this as a qualitatively different stage, but rather just part of the uniformally gradual slope in gaining more experience. Another equally interesting view is the inventionist view, which states that adolescence is merely a creation of sociohistory. Especially important in this view are the sociohistorical circumstances at the beginning of the twentieth century, a time when legislation was enacted that ensured the dependency of youth and made their move into the economic sphere more manageable. Keep in mind, although this view does not completely match up with the others, it does not contradict them either.

Positive Psychology is sometimes brought up when adressing adolescent psychology as well. In many groups, one encounters a surprising number of teens whom are bored, unmotivated, and pessimistic about their future. A positive psychology styled apporach attempts to start up their internal fires, help them develop the complex skills and dispositions necessary to take charge of their lives, to become socially competent, compassionate and psychologically vigorous adults. The article "Positive psychology and adolescent mental health: false promise or true breakthrough?", by Thomas M Kelly, discusses it more.

Scientists have discovered, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, that teen brains are changing pretty drastically, including "pruning" the gray matter and developing more white matter. This might explain some of the erratic, illogical and emotional behavior we see teens exhibit. It also might explain why schizophrenia often does not show up until young-adult-hood.

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Social significance

In commerce, this generation is seen as an important target. Cellular phones, contemporary popular music, movies, television programs, video games and clothes are heavily marketed and often popular amongst adolescents.

In the past (and still in some cultures) there were ceremonies that celebrate adulthood, typically occurring during adolescence. Genpuku (translated as coming of age) in Japan is an instance. Upanayanam is a coming of age ceremony for males in the Hindu world.

Teenagers have also been an important factor in many movements for positive social change around the world. The popular history of adolescents participating in these movements may perhaps start with Joan of Arc, and extend to present times with popular youth activism, student activism, and other efforts to make youth voice heard.

The three leading causes of death of teenagers are accidents, suicides, and homicides.

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Legal issues

Japanese secondary school students in uniform
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Japanese secondary school students in uniform

A number of social scientists, including anthropoligist Margaret Mead and sociologist Mike Males, have repeatedly noted the contradictory treatment of laws affecting adolescents in the United States. As Males has noted the US Supreme Court has, "explicitly ruled that policy-makers may impose adult responsibilities and punishments on individual youths as if they were adults at the same time laws and policies abrogate adolescents’ rights en masse as if they were children."

Internationally, those over a certain age (perhaps 18, though this varies) are legally considered responsible adults. Those who are under the age of legal responsibility may be considered too young to be held accountable for criminal action. This is called the defense of infancy.

The issue of youth activism affecting political, social, educational, and moral circumstances is of growing significance around the world. Youth-led organizations around the world have fought for social justice, the youth vote seeking to gain teenagers the right to vote, to secure more youth rights, and demanding better schools through student activism.

Youth are also becoming more involved in community leadership, governance, and service. Volunteerism among youth is at a record high, while student voice in schools and youth voice in communities is being engaged in community organizations, government boards, and in youth-serving nonprofit staffs and leadership.

The sale of selected items such as cigarettes, alcohol, videos, and video games with sexual or violent content, is often prohibited based on age. Such age restrictions vary widely. In practice, it is common that young people engage in underage smoking or drinking, and in some cultures this is tolerated to a certain degree. In the United States, teenagers are usually allowed to drive at 16 (each state sets its own minimum driving age), but they cannot legally purchase or consume alcohol until 21. In Europe it is more common for the driving age to be higher (18, usually) while the drinking age is lower. The traditional age of full maturity in the U.S. is 21 and, until recently (see: Twenty-sixth amendment) people were not legally allowed to vote until this age. At present, citizens may vote at 18 and usually can run in local and state elections at that age (and sometimes do; in rare cases, high school students have run for school board positions). One must be 25, however, to serve in the House of Representatives and 30 to serve in the Senate, or 35 to serve as the President of the United States.

Given the emotional immaturity of adolescents, many countries consider those under a certain age to be too young to engage in sexual intercourse and other sexual activities with adults, even if they are physiologically capable. See age of consent. This issue has been most famously dramatized in the book Lolita (and subsequent movies). Pedophilia is defined as interest in children before puberty, yet informally in the United States and other countries where there is a prevalence of a culture of fear, it may also include interest in adolescents, with their maturing bodies (although the correct term for an interest in post-pubescent adolescents is called Ephebophilia). In some other countries or cultures, relationships between adults and adolescents are socially accepted or viewed with tolerance. See pedophilia and ephebophilia for more information. In many countries, sex with adolescents below a certain age has become a social issue and is considered a serious sex crime. The age of consent varies according to the country or state/region. Countries without such laws may be targets for child sex tourism, if their laws do not separate prostitution from normal relationships.

Pornography involving those under a certain age, typically 18 (see child pornography), is also considered unacceptable and strictly prohibited in most countries. In the past (and still in poor countries), female adolescents were sometimes forced to engage in prostitution and slavery, even at a young age.

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Fiction about teenagers

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Nonfiction about teenagers

  • Giroux, H (2003) The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear
  • Giroux, H (1994) Channel Surfing: Racism, the Media, and the Destruction of Today's Youth
  • Giroux, H (1995) Stealing Innocence: Corporate Culture's War on Children
  • Giroux, H (1996) The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence
  • Guilloud, S (2002) Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men
  • Males, M (1997) The Scapegoat Generation: America's War on Youth ISBN 1567510809
  • Males, M (1999) Framing Youth: Ten Myths About the Next Generation
  • Males, M (2001) Kids & Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth
  • United Nations (2003) World Youth Report
  • Postman, N (1991) The Disappearance of Childhood
  • Kitwana, B (2003) The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture
  • Llewellyn, G, L (1991, 1998) The Teenage Liberation Handbook
  • Fletcher, A (2004) Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to School Change
  • Dworksy, A (1984) Adolescence: the Wasted Years.
  • Checkoway (1997) Adults As Allies to Youth
  • Innovation Center (2001) http://www.theinnovationcenter.org/product.asp Broadening the Bounds of Youth Development: Youth as Engaged Citizens]
  • Welton, N & Wolf, L (2002) Global Uprising: Stories from a New Generation of Activists
  • California Adolescent Health Collaborative (2001) Involving Youth in Public Policy
  • Dominick, B & Ebrahimi (1999) Liberating Youth
  • Marques, E, Haid, P, & Brown, J (1999) Re-focusing the Lens: Assessing the Challenge of Youth Involvement in Public Policy
  • Cervone, B (2002) Taking Democracy In Hand: Youth Action For Educational Change in the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Marques, E & Brown, J (1999) Taking Notice: An Annotated Sampling of Youth Organisations
  • NA (1997) Teens: Little Respect in a Big World?. Crimson and Gray Online
  • Males, M (1999) The "Harper's Index" of Myths About American Teens
  • Hyatt, B (1985) The Oppression and Liberation of Youth
  • Hutchinson, E (2001) Too Young To Vote, But Not To Be Executed
  • McPherson, K, Sisson, M, & Fletcher, A (2001) When Youth Have a Voice, School Climate Changes
  • University of the Poor. (2002) Young People's Liberation Policy
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List of people who achieved fame in their teens

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Historical significance

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Literature

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Entertainment

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Sports

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List of famous teenagers

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External links

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See also

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Compare with

Childhood – Adolescence – Young adult
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