Stanley Hall spoke of him as a period of storm and onslaught. - Stanley Hall spoke about him. MJ Rousseau called it a period of storms and passions, the process of "birth into adulthood." For L.S. Vygotsky, he was a turning point, critical, transitional. Parents and teachers believe that he is difficult, unbearable, nightmare. And that's all he is - adolescence. When to wait for him? How to prepare for it, understand and survive?
When a teenager became a problem
Adolescence as an independent and isolated period of human life is a relatively modern phenomenon. Studies by anthropologists and cultural scientists describe the harmonious and conflict-free flow of the process of growing up in primitive cultures, as well as in the era of pre-industrial development of civilization. Children from an early age were included in the work and everyday life of those around them. Had duties physically feasible at their age, were responsible for the result to the family, tribe.
After the end of infancy, the rigid separation of behaviors into children and adults ceased. Thus, a person from an early age acquired the skills and knowledge necessary in later life. In such conditions, training in adult behavior was smooth. By the age of puberty, the child was completely ready to fulfill the requirements of an independent mature life. Only from the middle of the 17th century began to single out a special period in human life - adolescence as a new social phenomenon.
Who and when determined these boundaries
All the main areas and schools of foreign psychology have not ignored the question of what are the age limits of adolescence. S. Hall was the first of the psychologists to give a scientific justification for this phenomenon. He believed that the age limits of adolescence constitute the period from the onset of puberty (12-13 years) until adulthood (22-25 years). His followers have identified two periods in this range - from 11-13 years to 17-20 years. So far, it has not been possible to develop a unified approach to determining the clear age boundaries of this period. Despite the fact that in the English language, only persons aged 13-19 years fall under the definition of a teenager, in foreign psychology the definition of adolescence prevails - adulthood with a range from 12-14 to 25 years.
The boundaries of adolescence in domestic psychology
In Russia, problems associated with this age were first investigated by L.S. Vygotsky and D. B. Elkonin. The main reason for the features of this period, they considered a cardinal change in interests and leading activities.
Based on this, the total age period from 11 to 17 years is divided into two: the first from 11 to 15 years, and the senior adolescence within the borders of 15-17 years.
The interests inherent to adolescents at this time are as follows:
- To self.
- Craving for resistance, resistance.
- Interest in romance, heroism, risk.
- Installation on a large scale, globalization of interests
The borders of adolescence according to Vygotsky are marked by crises of 13 and 17 years, which separate childhood from adolescence and adolescence, respectively. It was at this time that adolescents tend to do extraordinary things.
View from the outside
Medical science answers the question of what the boundaries of adolescence are in a different way. In age-related physiology, the following stages of maturation and their norms have been established.
| boys (years) | girls (years) |
| Stage 1 | from 10-13 to 12-14 | from 8-10 to 9-12 |
| 2 stage | from 12-14 to 13-16 | from 9-12 to 10-12 |
| 3 stage | from 13-16 to 15-17 | from 10-13 to 11-14 |
| 4th stage | from 15-17 to 17-18 | from 11-14 to 15-16 |
The first stage is the beginning of enhanced growth of bone and muscle tissue. The appearance of signs of sexual formation.
The second stage - the main sign is growth spikes (increase reaches up to 8 cm per year) and an increase in body weight (up to 8 kg per year). The development of secondary sexual characteristics continues: swelling of the breast and mammary glands (in boys subsequently disappears), weak pigmentation, the beginning of penis growth.
The third stage - the maximum activity of testosterone and estrogen leads to rapid sexual formation. Active body hair growth (according to male and female type), voice breaking, first ejaculation in boys and menstruation in girls
The fourth stage is the final formation of the reproductive system.
Features of physiological maturation
Intensive restructuring of the endocrine system marks the beginning of adolescence from a medical point of view. The end of this period is the achievement of puberty.
In this difficult time, the child constantly adapts, adapts to the physical and physiological changes that occur in his body at an extraordinary speed. New body proportions underlie clumsiness, teenage angularity. This does not add self-confidence to the young person. In boys, during a change in the timbre of the voice, sometimes failures occur on high notes, which can also be painfully experienced by the child.
The timing of the formation of secondary sexual characteristics has a large individual scatter within the framework of the general age norm, which leads to feelings and rejection of your body. Rapid development causes problems in the work of the heart, lungs, and circulatory system, which leads to changes in muscle and vascular tone, as well as physical condition and mood. Emotional instability is enhanced by a new sense of sexual arousal for a growing personality. All this exacerbates the complexity and inconsistency of adolescence.
In terms of law
The legal legal norms for boys and girls in the Russian Federation are regulated by the Civil Criminal Codes of the Russian Federation.
According to them, the legal boundaries of adolescence are set in the range from 14 to 18 years. This category of citizens of the Russian Federation is called minors.
Some legal norms apply to children from 6 to 14 years. These are juvenile minors.
Rights and obligations
As recorded in regulatory documents:
Juvenile minors have the following rights:
- Make small household transactions (purchases).
- Dispose at its discretion the funds provided by the legal representative with their consent.
- From 10 years of age, the opinion and actions of the child are given legal meaning.
Minors have the following rights:
- Be the authors of works of art, literary and scientific works.
- From the age of 14, get a job with the consent of the parents.
- From 15 years old, get a job independently.
- From 16 years old, engage in entrepreneurial activity
- Manage your earnings and income at your discretion
- They have the right to open a bank account, to manage the deposit at their discretion.
- from 16 years of age, full administrative and legal liability appears.
- from 16 years of age legal emancipation is possible (recognition of full legal capacity by decision of the court or guardianship authorities).
What psychologists say
Why is the short (relatively to the total life expectancy) teenage period so acute and often painful in the modern world?
L.S., Vygotsky noted three lines of human growth in ontogenesis. These development vectors have the initial and final points of their direction. Here are three types of ripening:
- Organic
- Sexual (an integral part of organic maturation, but so important that it is allocated in a special direction).
- Social.
In primitive cultures and until the 17-18 centuries, the final points of sexual and social maturation coincided. This was recorded by initiation rituals and hostel traditions that contributed to the beginning of an independent adult life, such as military service, training outside the family clan (apprenticeship), creating your own family. Later (after a couple of years) organic maturation was completed.
How do you now define the boundary of adolescence? Due to the development of society and the complication of social interaction, the final points of growth have diverged greatly in time. First puberty is completed, then organic. The development of social independence is now very stretched in time. Starting at age 13, it often does not end at age 25.
Why is it so difficult with them
Within the boundaries of adolescence, a new feature of the psychological development of a person arises - a sense of maturity. As part of this neoplasm, the child seeks complete independence.
At the initial stage of the path of his new life, the child resorts to the demonstrative manifestations of adulthood. There is a desire to be independent in choosing clothes, independent in choosing friends and entertainment. A young man has a need to resist the time frame of the regime established by parents and teachers. Often, adolescents use the attributes of adult life that are prohibited for children - smoking, alcohol, profanity, thereby trying to expand the age limits of adolescence.
People often call young adolescence childhood. Therefore, they not only do not help the matured person to establish themselves, but also strengthen control, their pressure. This leads to an aggravation of the conflict; distance from parents begins in psychological and emotional terms.
Family or street
Important and decisive is the influence of peers. The teenager's idea of himself, his significance and value depends on them in many respects. During this period, the status "I am a concept" begins to form. If earlier in assessing himself the child was guided by the opinion of adults, then from 11-12 years of age there is an interest in his own inner world. At this time, the first experiments of reflection and self-knowledge take place. Understand what it really is - the main component of the complex inner work of a teenager.
Estimates are very biased and not always true. Not accepting one’s appearance is just the tip of the iceberg of problems that a teenager is trying to solve by forming the image of a “real self.” There is the image of “I am perfect”, which develops under the influence of the environment: peers, the media, significant adults. Mismatch of these images leads to feelings, deviant behavior. The task of parents is to bring these images together, gently correcting them.
Be or seem
Trying by all means to appear as adults, children of younger adolescents are not yet ready and cannot be such in full measure. In difficult situations, when it is necessary to bear responsibility for their actions and decisions, they want to receive protection and guardianship of adults. A sensitive and wise parent will never use this vulnerability of a child as a way to suppress his independence. Having protected and solved the problem, the right parent will try to suggest how to act next time to solve the situation without the help of adults.
At the beginning of life's journey
In older adolescents, questions of life prospects, professional self-determination, and moral guidelines are sharply raised. The main influence on the formation of these personality criteria is provided by the family. Consciously, and often unconsciously, a future life script is being written. During this period, the adolescent tries to defend his social independence, since they may be required to implicitly obey and make responsible decisions at the same time. He feels "in two chairs": you can vote, but you can’t marry, you can work, but you can’t buy alcohol. Attributes of adulthood are interspersed with restrictions characteristic of childhood.
Adult but still child
Three tips for parents:
- If you are confused about the age limits of adolescence, be careful about your child. All these norms are very arbitrary and have large individual differences.
- If you think that your child’s development does not correspond to the steps described in the article, read paragraph 1 again.
- If you are comparing your child with others (children of friends, colleagues, classmates), re-read paragraph 1.
Knowing and understanding the characteristics of adolescence in the modern world, you can slightly ease the "storms and passions" that accompany growing up. However, it is unlikely that they will be completely avoided.