When do you become an “adult”?
I am currently enrolled in a Human Development course called “Adolescence”, and yes, you guessed it!, we’re studying the precious period in all of our lives know to many as “puberty.” In reality, puberty is only one short phase of an extremely long and confusing transition from childhood to adulthood. (”Confusing” does not always mean it was a negative experience - you may remember a quite enjoyable adolescence! In fact, although we typically think of adolescence as a tumultuous time, studies show that it is not that traumatic a transition for most people) . There are indeed physical changes, (which may have occurred at later ages for some of us (ahem!), but there are also cognitive changes and social transitions which vary based on culture, environment, religion, society and heredity. The passage into adulthood in contemporary society is in fact quite cloudy, with no clear-cut age and/or ritual at which adolescence is finally over with. Think about it : society allows us to drive at 16, see R movies at 17, vote at 18, and drink at 21 - all “adult” priveleges. Why not give it to us all at once at ONE age, so we’d know, at ___ years old, we are officially adults?
The question in the text book (Steinberg, Adolescence) jumps out at me from the page :
“When did you become (or when will you) an adult?”