Between childhood and adulthood is an extended developmental stage that may not qualify for a “hood” of its own but that is clearly distinct from the stages that come before and after. Adolescence is the period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (about 11 to 14 years of age) and lasts until the beginning of adulthood (about 18 to 21 years of age).
Just two centuries ago, the gap between childhood and adulthood was relatively brief because people became physically adult at roughly the same time that they were ready to accept adult roles in society, and these roles did not normally require them to have extensive schooling. But in modern societies, people typically spend 3 to 10 years in school after they reach puberty. Thus, while the age at which people become physically adult has decreased, the age at which they are prepared or allowed take on adult responsibilities has increased, and so the period between childhood and adulthood has become protracted. What are the consequences of a protracted adolescence?
Adolescence is often characterized as a time of internal turmoil and external recklessness, and some psychologists have speculated that the protraction of adolescence is in part to blame for its bad reputation (Moffitt, 1993). According to these theorists, adolescents are adults who have temporarily been denied a place in adult society. American teenagers are subjected to 10 times as many restrictions as older adults, and twice as many restrictions as active-duty U.S. Marines or incarcerated felons (Epstein, 2007a). As such, they feel especially compelled to do things to demonstrate their adulthood, such as smoking, drinking, using drugs, having sex, and committing crimes. In a sense, adolescents are people who are forced to live in the gap between two worlds, and the so-called storm and stress of adolescence may be understood in part as a consequence of this dilemma. As one researcher noted, “Trapped in the frivolous world of peer culture, they learn virtually everything they know from one another rather than from the people they are about to become. Isolated from adults and wrongly treated like children, it is no wonder that some teens behave, by adult standards, recklessly or irresponsibly” (Epstein, 2007b).
But the storm and stress of adolescence is by no means inevitable (Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Teenagers in many cultures show few signs of adolescent turmoil and seem more intent on learning to become adults than on rebelling
Are adolescent problems inevitable?
Indeed, research suggests that even in American society, the “moody adolescent” who is a victim of “raging hormones” is largely a myth. Adolescents are no moodier than children (Buchanan, Eccles, & Becker, 1992), and fluctuations in their hormone levels have only a tiny impact on their moods (Brooks-Gunn, Graber, & Paikoff, 1994).
