★ CONCEPT OF ADOLESCENCE - 1 :-
Adolescence, as we know today, has undergone major social and evolutionary transitions like childhood. You might know that ‘adolescence’ as a concept/term was introduced at the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Before this period, adolescence was not differentiated from childhood. In the introductory part of this Unit, you have read thus: How do urbanization and economic change impact the construction and experience of adolescence?
The introduction of the concept/term adolescence is the result of the rapid changes brought about by industrial revolution in society. You could categorize these changes as industrialization, urbanization, institutionalization and immigration. Though we are not going into the details of each category, let us examine the changes brought about by industrialization and how this impact the concept what we call adolescence.
Before delving into the details of condition of children and adolescents in industrial societies, we have to address the captivating question- ‘How childhood and adolescence are treated in non-industrial societies?’ In the subsequent paragraph, we ponder over this query. Ruth Benedict argues that in non-industrial societies, children are generally treated differently from that of industrial societies in the following ways:
➤ Children in non-industrial societies took responsibility at an early age;
➤ Those children who show obedience to adult authority were placed in less value; and
➤ The sexual behaviour of children is often viewed differently.
Before the industrial revolution, children and adolescents were considered to be merely miniature adults. They were expected to work within the family household such as in farm fields, carpentry or engaged in other trades at home. Children and adolescents were seen more of an economic liability and less of an asset. In rural areas, they helped in livestock and harvesting; but in the city, they often didn’t work. With the increased mechanization, the demand for skilled workers had increased and necessitated a specialized division of labour.
This reduced the usefulness of both children and adolescents as workers. More than that, laws were passed restricting child labour and making schooling compulsory. What changes have happened in society to make childhood and adolescence as a distinct life-stage? You may say that schooling, laws restricting child labour and child protection Acts gave children the stages of childhood and adolescence. By the middle of the 20th century, adolescents were separated from adults and they spent most of their time with peers. After World War II, the enrolment of adolescents who attended schools increased and they delayed their entry into the adult world. Thus, you have understood how urbanization and economic change impact the construction and experience of adolescence.
★ CONCEPT OF ADOLESCENCE - 2 :-
When we look at the derivation of the term ‘adolescence’, we can see that the term comes from the Latin verb ‘adolescere’ which means ‘to grow up’ or ‘to grow to maturity’. In psychology, adolescence is treated as a stage between childhood and adulthood. In this stage, one has to adapt and adjust childhood behaviours to the adult standards that are recognized in one’s culture.
Here, we may refer adolescence not only to biological growth, but also to social growth within a cultural framework. Some may consider puberty as the evidence of reaching adolescence stage. We use puberty to denote the time when a child attains physical and sexual maturity.
The two-year period that precedes puberty is termed as pubescence. It is the period when physiological changes lead to the development of secondary sex characteristics. Adolescence being linked to puberty refers to the transitional period from childhood to adolescence and is different from culture to culture because of the influence of society. Generally, we may divide the stages of adolescence as follows:
Stages of Adolescence
Three main stages of adolescence can be discerned:
Early adolescence (10-13 years) – In this stage, there is a spurt of growth and development of secondary sexual characteristics.
Mid adolescence (14-15 years) – This stage is characterized by forming new relationships with opposite sex and the peer groups and the development of a separate identity from parents.
Late adolescence (16-18 years) – At this stage, adolescents behave similar to adults, and has formed a distinct identity and has their own opinions and ideas.
From the above paragraphs, you might have thought that adolescence is related with physical changes only by considering maturity as the most obvious reason. Usually maturity refers to the age or stage of life when an individual attains physical, emotional, social and intellectual development fully. On the contrary, you may wonder why we have not taken an age-graded definition of adolescence. Several reasons are raised against age-graded definitions.
First, there is variation in the age of onset of pubescence. Second, age cannot be treated as a psychological variable; it is only a rough index of the experiences one goes through the process of psychological development. Finally, we cannot limit adolescence to the teen-age years as many individuals in their early twenties are in adolescent roles.
For example, some 18- year-olds are financially independent and staying separately from their parents (therefore considered as adults), while others may still depend upon parents financially and emotionally attached to parents (therefore considered as adolescents). However, there are other social and cultural determinants in describing adolescence. Like childhood, adolescence is also a cultural construction instead of a biological phenomenon or an age range. Let us discuss the concept of adolescs.
★ Adolescence in different cultures - 1 :-
You might be thinking how adolescence can be culturally constructed? Adolescence is culturally constructed in the sense that how various cultures define adult status and on the terms of learning adult roles and responsibilities by the adolescents. Adolescence occurs within a cultural context. Moreover, it takes place within a specific time frame for each individual.
Your adolescence, that of your parents and that of your children will share certain commonalities, such as biological growth, but will be unique in certain respects such as play and music preference. Now you may agree that adolescence is present in all cultures but the lived experiences vary greatly among cultures. Adolescence is considered in different ways in various cultures.
Read the matter given in the following:
In middle class America, adolescence is termed as ‘vestibule adolescence’ which describes the period between 18- 20 years of age. Arab adolescents are supposed to remain within the family system until marriage; this reveals the influence of family interests and opinions. In Mexican American culture, adolescents are discouraged from leaving home.
Do you know that in some cultures adolescence does not occur? For example, instead of considering adolescence as a stage, they would conduct a puberty rite ceremony or rite of passage. This marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. Does your culture celebrate any ceremony to mark the entrance from childhood to adolescence? There are examples of puberty rituals that have developed in many cultures to mark the departure from childhood to adolescence. Puberty rituals are especially common in various societies and traditional cultures.
★ Adolescence in different cultures - 2 :-
Read the following:-
In Samoa, an island in the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand, both male and female participate in puberty rituals. The traditional rite of passage into adolescence contains an elaborate process of tattooing sometime between ages 14 and 16. For boys the process lasts for 2 to 3 months whereas for girls, it takes 5 to 6 days.
Among Navajo Americans (a Native American tribe), females have a ceremonial ritual related with the onset of menarche. This indicates the entrance of children to adolescence stage.
In Judaism, boys are considered as a ‘bar mitzvah’ (means ‘son of the commandment’) at the age of thirteen and girls as a ‘bat mitzvah’ at the age of twelve. By these ceremonies, they are looked upon as adults and obliged to follow Jewish commandments and laws.
In many parts of Tamilnadu when a girl attains puberty, a grand feast is conducted. She is bathed in turmeric and dressed as a bride and declared to the larger community that she had now matured. In Nair community (one of the Hindu castes in Kerala) when girls attain puberty, they celebrate ‘thirandukalyanam’ in a grand scale. Thirandumangalyam and thiruandukuli are the other terms that are used for this ceremony.
Chuktia Bhunjia, a primitive tribal group in Odisha perform two ceremonial rites for girls-i) pre-puberty rite and ii) puberty rite. In pre-puberty rite, the girl is married to an arrow (Kan) or a branch of Mahul tree as her token husband. If she attains puberty before this rite, she is treated as characterless (Abheda) and face social disapproval. This rite is similar with marriage ceremony. During puberty, the girl is kept apart from others for one month. She is forbidden to visit any male person and to enter kitchen. After one month, she is taken to a river stream by her maternal aunt for bathing with oil-mixed turmeric. After wearing new cloth, she is taken to her uncle’s house where a brass pot filled with water is given to her to carry to her own house. Directly entering into the kitchen, she starts cooking in new utensil to reveal her purity.
★ Adolescence in different cultures - 3 :-
From the above details, you know about the various ceremonies related with the coming of age (puberty) of children. You have noted that some of them are connected with an age of religious responsibility and some with the age of sexual maturity. Adolescence is not fixed; it varies between time, place and culture. Some researchers say that in India, in rural areas there is less variation between children and adults, as compared to urbanizing spaces. It is said that ‘adolescence’ is not seen as a separate phase in childhood.
As soon as a child becomes physically mature to take up adult roles, s/he starts assuming adult roles like, for example, getting engaged in earning income, doing all household work, wear adult-like clothes, and even gets married at an earlier age. It is argued that concept of adolescence (as a phase of transition from childhood to adulthood) has come in existence in India and in many other countries of late. Now you know that defining the boundaries of adolescence is not an easy task. Generally, psychologists agree that adolescence starts with puberty.
At the same time, it is difficult to mark the end of adolescence which we term as ‘maturity’. Usually maturity refers to the age or stage of life when a person is considered to be fully developed physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. The rate of attaining maturity will differ from person to person. We usually assume that maturity is attained by an individual when s/he is engaging in the socially defined roles of adults in society such as economic independence, marrying, parenting and others.
Therefore, we may consider adolescence as the period which lies between attaining puberty and assuming various adulthood roles. So far we have discussed the concept of childhood and adolescence. In the next section, we will find the differences among a child, an adolescent and an adult.
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