does adolescence make sense
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Does Adolescence Make Sense?
Submitted by Simone Biow
Serving as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, adolescence is an integral stage in the
human growth process. It is both a period of physical metamorphosis and of identity formation. However,
sociologists have begun to place "emphasis on adolescence as a problematic stage in modern society" (4).
In fact, some scientists have even asserted that adolescence has become obsolete. Today, it is undeniable
that, if current trends continue, the prolongation of adolescence and postponement of adulthood will have
increasingly detrimental effects on both youths and society (6). Nevertheless, history and biology have
proven that when regarded as a period of physiological and intellectual maturation, adolescence makes
sense.
In all societies, adolescence is characterized by a biological constant and is then conditioned by a series of
social variables (2). The biological constant is puberty. For girls puberty coincides with menarche and the
development of secondary sex characteristics. For boys, puberty begins later and, though cultural
interpretations are often ambiguous, it is typically marked by a voice change and the appearance of
secondary sex characteristics.
As they undergo puberty and as physical maturation becomes evident, adolescents are often alienated by
their communities. They can no longer assimilate with younger children, but are also not yet operating as
adults (1). During this period of extrusion, adolescents are expected to begin establishing a sense of identity
and independence. A similar developmental stage has been observed in sexually mature, but unmated,
primates including chimpanzees and baboons. Alienated from the rest of the group, these young apes are
kept at a spatial and social distance until they are considered mature (1).
Since a period of adolescence is apparent in other species, it can be reasonably assumed that adolescence-as
a developmental phase has primitive biological origins. In fact, studies show that "as the animal scale is
ascended," the duration of adolescence becomes longer (6). This progressive extension of the "period of
helplessness and dependence" is necessary because it gives "complex individuals time to become
competent to exercise increased control over themselves and their own environment" (6). In fact, humans
experience the longest and most formative period of adolescence. Yet, they have also artificially extendedits duration.
Until recently, it had been assumed that adolescence was a product of 20th century urbanization. In reality,
though,problematicadolescence was the result of urbanization. During the 19th and 20th centuries the
industrial revolution stimulated mass movements from rural areas to large cities. Because children were no
longer being raised in insular communities and were instead being exposed to a stratum of diverse families
and social groups, the period of social adolescence became more complicated. The diversity introduced by
urban societies began to offer youths many new and different influences in terms of career and lifestyle
choices and as a result, adolescents required more time to explore their options (3). In addition, the
movement toward industrialization and urbanization of the last century, caused an unhealthy tendency to
postpone adulthood (2).
The trend of postponing adulthood became particularly apparent in the 1920s. During the Great Depression,"unemployment, the extension of education, and the decline of the family-based farm began to create a
social class of people who were neither children nor adults. As such, these people enjoyed a lengthy period
of semi-autonomy" (4). This emergence of a new "social class of people", prompted sociologists to begin
observing adolescents more closely. In 1941, a scholar observed that "when, as in the past decade, half or
more of the persons who have reached or passed the supposed terminal age of adolescence are not able to
act as adults, we are suddenly overwhelmed and confused" (6). In other words, the emergence of the
prolonged adolescence was sudden and startling. Proposed solutions included employing children in part-
time jobs. Although, naturally, no one was suggesting reintroducing the dangerous factory labour of the
industrial revolution, part-time jobs would still have allowed youths to attain a sense of responsibility and
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social skills (1). Other suggestions included modifying the school system to provide better social training
and better insulating the family unit.
When the Cold War was at its peak, so too were the commentaries on youth maladjustment. Political and
cultural variables were begun to be considered as factors that contributed to the problems of modern
adolescents. For instance, a comparison of the educational systems showed that the former Soviet Union
system stressed that school be made a central component of the political and economic structure and that
youth be given a "productive role" (5). As a result, adolescents from the former USSR were observed to be
compliant and well behaved. In contrast, the problems of misbehaviour among American youths were
"patriotically" dismissed as the price that had to be paid for freedom and an "extremely individualistic,
dynamic social order" (5). The fact that sociologists were drawing these cultural comparisons suggested
that problematic adolescents were still attracting attention and solutions were still being sought more than
ever.
In recent decades adolescence has become one of modern society's most widely accepted assumptions
about the process of human development. In fact, adolescence has come to be viewed as a period of
entitlement during which individuals have a licence to renounce responsibility and to remain self-indulgent.
Moreover, the gradually lengthened duration of adolescence has been identified by sociologists and
psychologists as the prime cause of juvenile delinquency and other socio-interactive disorders (2). Because
teenagers are finding themselves with so much spare time on their hands and little responsibility, many
occupy the time by misbehaving or engaging in criminal activities. Whether or not these criminal activitiesare ways of proving independence to their parents or are impulses triggered by hormonal imbalances, they
indicate a lack of responsibility. Often, these social infractions are tolerated and rarely castigated, as the
contemporary impression of adolescent behaviour oscillates between viewing it as either childishly
immature or sensibly adult-like. As such, adolescents are excused as 'impressionable' when they misbehave
but praised as adults when they perform well.
Interestingly, problematic adolescents are distinctly modern and uniquely present only in industrialized
societies. In fact, studies of pre-industrial cultures have revealed that adolescents begin to imitate adult
activities and to acquire certain degrees of responsibility early on (1). By comparison, the current trend of
postponing adulthood has created a unique class of maladjusted young adults and delinquent adolescence.
Western cultures fail to realise that adolescence as a social stage is purely a response to internal biological
change (1). If the developmental and nurturing functions of adolescence are to be restored, thencontemporary Western societies must first accept adolescence for what it is: a biological process. Then,
adolescence ought to be defined as a social phenomenon. Psychologists are still vague when discussing
what adolescent behaviours are appropriate. More importantly, adolescents ought to be encouraged to
assume responsibilities either through work, volunteering, or other initiatives. While the search for identity
and independence is a component of adolescence, so too is establishing social skills. By becoming more
productive, adolescents will be able to assume adult responsibilities with less hesitation. Moreover, they
will know precisely when it is that adolescence has successfully reached a point of termination and
adulthood has begun.
Works Cited
1. Schlegel, Alice. "A Cross-Cultural Approach to Adolescence."Ethos. Vol. 23 No. 1, Adolescence.
(March 1995), pp. 15-32.2. Havighurst, Robert J. "Adolescence and the Postponement of Adulthood." The School Review. Vol. 68,
No. 1. (Spring, 1960), pp. 52-62.
3. Demos, Virginia & John. "Adolescence in Historical Perspective." Journal of Marriage and the Family.
Vol. 31, No. 4 (Nov. 1969), pp. 632-38.
4. Furstenberg, Frank F. "The Sociology of Adolescence and Youth in the 1990s: A Critical Commentary."
Journal of Marriage and the Family. Vol. 62, No 4,(Nov. 2000), pp. 896-910.
5. Davis, Kingsley. "Adolescence and the Social Structure."Annals of the Academy of Political and Social
Science. Vol. 236, Adolescents in Wartime, (Nov. 1944) pp. 8-16.
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6. Cline, E.C. "Social Implications of Modern Adolescent Problems." The School Review. Vol. 49, No. 7
(Sept. 1941), pp. 511-514.