Adolescence as a social construct

[Artaxerxes II]

Antis' biggest arguments often hinge on a very rigid and particularly essentialist interpretation of childhood and adulthood, presupposing that things "have always been that way", with adolescence being just a continuation of childhood, or that adolescence constitutes a "vulnerable" and rigid stage of human life that is a universal constant across history and culture.

But this couldn't be further from the truth, as the concepts of adulthood and childhood have often shifted across time and cultures, with various overlaps between the two and vastly different delineations of what constitutes adulthood in the first place. An example would be adolescence, a term that didn't come into being until the 20th century, and with was reified as a result of various factors such as the introduction of the Prussian schooling system across the western world, and consumer spending. Indeed, one could say that much of the modern definition of adolescence is based less on biology or inherent trait that can be quantifiable, and more on social environments and consumerism: https://web.archive.org/web/20130627200 ... buy-things

Going back to history, in Ancient Rome a free person could be trusted to a mentor, with the mentorship ending once the subordinate person until they reached the age of 30. But this contrasts with how, based on modern research, Roman senators often married young pubescent women. To show another example of such differences, in ancient Germanic law a person could be deemed as an adult at the age of 12, but in medieval times older youths (say those aged 16-18) made up the bulk of brand new knights, with medieval knighthood being an arduous and challenging process itself.

And who can't forget Robert Epstein, who made the case that adolescence is, indeed, a social construct that is doing more harm than good right now, with his books "The Case Against Adolescence" and "Teen 2.0".

End of the rant,I intend this thread to function as a text dump for any material showing adolescence as a social construct, or at least argue for the flexibility and malleability of human stages of life.

[Fragment]

I don’t have a problem with adolescence as a concept if it is taken to mean “young adulthood” rather than “extended childhood”.

I think grouping life into 3 main stages- childhood, adolescence and adulthood- is fine. But more and more adolescence is looking like a facsimile of childhood, rather than a transition.

[terminally_unique]

In America, childhood basically ends where adulthood begins. The legal framework does not allow for nuance or grey areas, so it has created this culture of excess and rebellion. For example, people under 21 cannot consume alcohol with few exceptions, so the minute they reach the arbitrary drinking age, they often make stupid decisions at least in the short term like getting behind the wheel of a car or binging to the point of vomiting. They develop addictions in adulthood because they weren't prepared and didn't learn how to moderate their behaviors in childhood (or rather adolescence).

[BLueRibbon]

This is consistent with the ideas discussed in the 16/12 proposal. Soft/hard lines could be drawn in other areas as well, such as allowing 12 year olds to vote with their vote being worth 50%, being legally allowed to buy very light beer at 12, wine at 16, and hard liquor at 18, etc.

[Fragment]

Small post I made on pedi today on this topic:

What children (especially aged around 10-14) lack is not understanding, but merely knowledge.

They have minds burning with the ability and desire to comprehend new ideas- they just need the fuel.

[terminally_unique]

I've always considered adolescence a biological reality, not a social construct. It starts when puberty starts and ends when puberty ends. That could be as early as 6 or 7 for females and as late as 18 or 19 for males.