Are Today's Adolescents Growing Up Too Fast? (From Adolescent Medicine: The At-Risk Adolescent, P 71-79, 1990, Victor C Strasburger and Donald E Greydanus, eds. -- See NCJ-135806)

• NCJ Number: 135810
• Author(s): D Elkind
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Hanley and Belfus, Inc
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The question of whether contemporary teenagers are growing up too fast can be approached from biological/evolutionary, sociological/historical, and psychological perspectives.

Abstract

The biological perspective compares differing growth rates for physiological, social, intellectual, and emotional maturity. This view argues that teenagers are growing up too fast physically or too slow intellectually, emotionally, and socially. The sociological perspective compares social demands for maturity made on contemporary teenagers with demands made on teenagers in earlier generations. This perspective suggests that society requires teenagers to grow up faster than they should or are able. The psychological perspective looks at the psychological health of teenagers and compares it to other age groups and young people in previous generations. This view contends that teenagers are not growing up too fast and that they are essentially no different from what they were in earlier generations. New morbidity reflects the fact that contemporary teenagers are more stressed and less psychologically healthy than they were 25 years ago. On the other hand, it is certainly true that most teenagers are still growing up healthy in mind and spirit. 12 references