Adolescence in contemporary Western industrial society is shaped and defined by the interplay of complex biological, cultural, economic, and historical forces. This lengthy transitional state, which may last a decade or more, is a distinctive period in which a youngster is no longer a child nor yet fully adult, but partakes of some of the challenges, privileges, and expectations of both epochs.

Adolescence is a period of paradoxes, as youngsters reach physical and sexual maturity well before they are fully cognitively and emotionally mature. On one hand, a secular trend toward earlier puberty over the past century and half means that defining maturational changes often begin by age 9–12, and that by 13 years of age many youngsters are potentially fertile and sexually attuned, if not yet fully active. On the other hand, the educational demands of a complex modern economy have prolonged formal education and raised the age of mandatory school attendance to approximately 16 years, whereas social welfare concerns have abolished child labor and legally restricted adolescent employment, thus postponing entry into the world of work. [Some measure of this shift may be seen in the contrast between 1900, when many Americans still lived on family farms, and only 10% of 14- to 17-year-olds attended high school, and the present 95% high school attendance rate (1).]

As a result, full economic emancipation usually is not possible until the later teens, at the earliest, and in the case of young people pursuing college or postgraduate education, often not until the middle to late 20s.

In the United States, the legal status of adolescents is a confusing mixture of privileges and strictures that attempts to balance the need for control and protection with the incremental granting of autonomy (2). For example, a 14-year-old may fly a plane, but not legally drive a car, whereas a 17-year-old may serve in the army, but not vote until 18 years of age, when he or she still is not legally allowed to drink. In many jurisdictions, a 14-year-old may legally obtain an abortion without her parents’ knowledge or consent but needs her parents’ permission to be absent from school to do so.

Despite the restrictions on their full-time employment, young adolescent consumers are a potent economic force, controlling billions of dollars in disposable income annually. Teenagers, hence, comprise an eagerly sought-after demographic target for marketers, advertisers, and the broadcast, print, and electronic media. In turn, to attract and hold these young viewers and readers, media programming directed to them increasingly emphasizes sex and violence as prominent themes; sexual themes are estimated to make up approximately one-third of the content of prime time shows popular with teens (3).

Winnicott once remarked aphoristically, “There is no such thing as a baby,” meaning that the baby could not be considered apart from its relationship with its mother. Although adolescence is the epoch par excellence of individuation and autonomy striving, it is similarly impossible to have a full understanding of adolescent development apart from its specific biological, family, community, cultural, and historical contexts (4). Thus, while recent theoretical perspectives on adolescence acknowledge the development of independence and autonomy from parents, there is now an increased awareness of the complementary dynamic of the adolescent’s developing capacity for interdependence and the ability to form and sustain mutually supportive relationships outside the family. Paralleling this relational perspective is an increased emphasis on the ecological

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Join