adolescence, usually transition between childhood and adulthood. Although some writers equate adolescence with puberty and the cycle of physical changes culminating in reproductive maturity, adolescence is more commonly defined in psychological and social terms as beginning with pubescence and terminating vaguely with “adulthood.” The term is a convenient label for a period in the life of an individual (approximately ages 12 to 20); such usage need make no commitment regarding the character of adolescent development or the specific nature of its causes (e.g., pubescence). Any period of life tends to be characterized by a group of developmental problems that are biological, psychological, and social in origin and timing. Among those that typically but not necessarily occur during the second decade of life are adjustments in the areas of heterosexual relations, occupational orientation, the development of a mature set of values and responsible self-direction, and the breaking of close emotional ties to parents. In a sense, such developmental tasks define adolescence and represent areas in which satisfactory adjustments must be made if future psychological development is to be possible. Authorities are not in agreement as to the nature of adolescence. To the popular mind and to many specialists, adolescence is presumed to be a psychologically stressful and critical period, characterized by a variety of special types of behaviour. According to one viewpoint, essentially biological and stemming mainly from psychoanalytic literature, adolescence is initiated at pubescence by the sudden upsurge of sex feelings following a sexually tranquil period of latency. Adolescence is the period during which the individual learns to control and direct his sex urges; it ends when such control and direction are established.

The whole process is presumed to be highly stressful emotionally and to give rise to a variety of behaviours, ranging from avoidance of the opposite sex to the writing of diaries, which are thought to be characteristic of adolescence and which serve to reduce the sex-generated anxiety. A biological view of adolescence implies a certain universality of occurrence. Cultural views also assume adolescence to be a stressful period, but one that occurs only under certain circumstances. Because children generally are not given graded opportunities for maturing experiences compatible with their physical and intellectual development, they experience a sudden widening of their world during their teens. This encountering of new ideas, concepts, values, and types of people, and the sudden responsibility for self- determination and self-sufficiency, force an array of adjustments upon the comparatively inexperienced young person and generate much apprehensiveness and anxiety. Furthermore, the teen-ager has no defined role of his own in society but is caught in the ambiguous overlap between the reasonably clearly defined roles of childhood and adulthood. Sometimes treated as a child, sometimes expected to be adult, he is uncertain how to behave. Also, society serves to frustrate important psychological needs of the young person (e.g., sex and desire for independence), thus generating aggression or other reactions, many of a socially disapproved type. In all the various cultural views, adolescence exists in the degree that such conditions prevail in a particular culture or a particular home.

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