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Article: Adolescence and Youth
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
- Author:
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Adolescence and Youth
The term
adolescence
derives from the Latin
adolescere,
"to grow up." The Random House Dictionary defines adolescence as "the process or condition of growing up; the growing age of human beings; the period which extends from childhood to manhood or womanhood; ordinarily considered as extending from fourteen to twenty-five in males, and from twelve to twenty-one in females." As a concept, adolescence has evolved in its biological, social, and psychological implications, but its most consequential evolution has occurred in adult perceptions of the norms and behavior of young people.
Throughout most of history, adolescence was unknown as a stage of life. Native ...