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| ==Biological adulthood== | ==Biological adulthood== | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| Historically and cross-culturally, adulthood has been determined primarily by the start of ]. In the past, a person usually moved from the status of child directly to the status of adult, often with this shift being marked by some type of coming-of-age test or ceremony.<ref>{{cite news | first = Robin| last = Maranz Henig| title = What Is It About 20-Somethings? | date = 2010-08-18| publisher = New York Times| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1 | pages = 10 | accessdate = 2010-09-24 | quote = THE DISCOVERY OF adolescence is generally dated to 1904, with the publication of the massive study "Adolescence," by G. Stanley Hall, a prominent ] and first president of the American Psychological Association.}}</ref> | Historically and cross-culturally, adulthood has been determined primarily by the start of ] (the appearance of ] such as ] in women, ] in men, and pubic hair in both sexes). In the past, a person usually moved from the status of child directly to the status of adult, often with this shift being marked by some type of coming-of-age test or ceremony.<ref>{{cite news | first = Robin| last = Maranz Henig| title = What Is It About 20-Somethings? | date = 2010-08-18| publisher = New York Times| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1 | pages = 10 | accessdate = 2010-09-24 | quote = THE DISCOVERY OF adolescence is generally dated to 1904, with the publication of the massive study "Adolescence," by G. Stanley Hall, a prominent ] and first president of the American Psychological Association.}}</ref> | ||
| After the social construct of ] was created, adulthood split into two forms: ''biological adulthood'' and ''social adulthood.'' Thus, there are now two primary forms of adults: biological adults (people who have attained reproductive ability) and social adults (people who are recognized by their culture or law as being adults). Depending on the context, ''adult'' can indicate either definition. | After the social construct of ] was created, adulthood split into two forms: ''biological adulthood'' and ''social adulthood.'' Thus, there are now two primary forms of adults: biological adults (people who have attained reproductive ability, are fertile, or who evidence secondary sex characteristics) and social adults (people who are recognized by their culture or law as being adults). Depending on the context, ''adult'' can indicate either definition. | ||
| Although few or no established dictionaries provide a definition for the two word term biological adult, the first definition of adult in multiple dictionaries includes "the stage of the life cycle of an animal after reproductive capacity has been attained".<ref>''International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology'' (1986)</ref><ref>''Churchill's Medical Dictionary'' (1989)</ref> Thus, the base definition of the word adult is the period beginning at physical sexual maturity, which occurs |
Although few or no established dictionaries provide a definition for the two word term biological adult, the first definition of adult in multiple dictionaries includes "the stage of the life cycle of an animal after reproductive capacity has been attained".<ref>''International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology'' (1986)</ref><ref>''Churchill's Medical Dictionary'' (1989)</ref> Thus, the base definition of the word adult is the period beginning at physical sexual maturity, which occurs sometime after the onset of puberty. Although this is the primary definition of the base word "adult", the term is also frequently used to refer to social adults. The two-word term ''biological adult'' stresses or clarifies that the original definition, based on physical maturity, is being used. | ||
| In humans, ] on average begins around 10–11 years of age for girls and 11–12 years of age for boys, though this will vary from person to person. |
In humans, ] on average begins around 10–11 years of age for girls and 11–12 years of age for boys, though this will vary from person to person. For girls, puberty begins around 10 or 11 years of age and ends around age 16. Boys enter puberty later than girls - usually around 12 years of age and it lasts until around age 16 or 17 (Or in rare cases 18 and a half).<ref name="Chumlea">(Chumlea, 1982).</ref><ref name="pamf.org">"For girls, puberty begins around 10 or 11 years of age and ends around age 16. Boys enter puberty later than girls-usually around 12 years of age-and it lasts until around age 16 or 17." {{Cite news|title=Teenage Growth & Development: 11 to 14 Years|publisher=pamf.org|url=http://www.pamf.org/teen/parents/health/growth-11-14.html}}</ref> | ||
| ==Legal adulthood== | ==Legal adulthood== | ||
Revision as of 07:23, 20 March 2018
"Adulthood" redirects here. For other uses, see Adulthood (disambiguation). For other uses, see Adult (disambiguation).| Part of a series on |
| Human growth and development |
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Biologically, an adult is a human or other organism that has reached sexual maturity. In human context, the term adult additionally has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible. The typical age of attaining adulthood is 18, although definition may vary by legal rights and country.
Human adulthood encompasses psychological adult development. Definitions of adulthood are often inconsistent and contradictory; a person may be biologically an adult, and have adult behavior but still be treated as a child if they are under the legal age of majority. Conversely, one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility that may define an adult character.
In different cultures there are events that relate passing from being a child to becoming an adult or coming of age. This often encompasses the passing a series of tests to demonstrate that a person is prepared for adulthood, or reaching a specified age, sometimes in conjunction with demonstrating preparation. Most modern societies determine legal adulthood based on reaching a legally specified age without requiring a demonstration of physical maturity or preparation for adulthood.
Biological adulthood
Historically and cross-culturally, adulthood has been determined primarily by the start of puberty (the appearance of secondary sex characteristics such as menstruation in women, ejaculation in men, and pubic hair in both sexes). In the past, a person usually moved from the status of child directly to the status of adult, often with this shift being marked by some type of coming-of-age test or ceremony.
After the social construct of adolescence was created, adulthood split into two forms: biological adulthood and social adulthood. Thus, there are now two primary forms of adults: biological adults (people who have attained reproductive ability, are fertile, or who evidence secondary sex characteristics) and social adults (people who are recognized by their culture or law as being adults). Depending on the context, adult can indicate either definition.
Although few or no established dictionaries provide a definition for the two word term biological adult, the first definition of adult in multiple dictionaries includes "the stage of the life cycle of an animal after reproductive capacity has been attained". Thus, the base definition of the word adult is the period beginning at physical sexual maturity, which occurs sometime after the onset of puberty. Although this is the primary definition of the base word "adult", the term is also frequently used to refer to social adults. The two-word term biological adult stresses or clarifies that the original definition, based on physical maturity, is being used.
In humans, puberty on average begins around 10–11 years of age for girls and 11–12 years of age for boys, though this will vary from person to person. For girls, puberty begins around 10 or 11 years of age and ends around age 16. Boys enter puberty later than girls - usually around 12 years of age and it lasts until around age 16 or 17 (Or in rare cases 18 and a half).
Legal adulthood
Main article: Age of majorityLegally, adulthood typically means that one has reached the age of majority - when parents lose parenting rights and responsibilities regarding the person concerned. Depending on one's jurisdiction, the age of majority may or may not be set independently of and should not be confused with the minimum ages applicable to other activities, such as engaging in a contract, marriage, voting, having a job, serving in the military, buying/possessing firearms, driving, traveling abroad, involvement with alcoholic beverages, smoking, sexual activity, gambling, being a model or actor in pornography, running for President, etc. Admission of a young person to a place may be restricted because of danger for that person, concern that the place may lead the person to immoral behavior or because of the risk that the young person causes damage (for example, at an exhibition of fragile items).
One can distinguish the legality of acts of a young person, or of enabling a young person to carry out that act, by selling, renting out, showing, permitting entrance, allowing participation, etc. There may be distinction between commercially and socially enabling. Sometimes there is the requirement of supervision by a legal guardian, or just by an adult. Sometimes there is no requirement, but rather a recommendation.
Using the example of pornography, one can distinguish between:
- being allowed inside an adult establishment
- being allowed to purchase pornography
- being allowed to possess pornography
- another person being allowed to sell, rent out, or show the young person pornography, see disseminating pornography to a minor
- being a pornographic actor: rules for the young person, and for other people, regarding production, possession, etc. (see child pornography)
With regard to films with violence, etc.:
- another person being allowed to sell, rent out, or show the young person a film; a cinema being allowed to let a young person enter
The age of majority ranges internationally from ages 15 to 21, with 18 being the most common age. Niger, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon define adulthood at age 15, but marriage of girls at an earlier age is common.
In most of the world, including most of the United States, parts of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Wales), India and China, the legal adult age is 18 (historically 21) for most purposes, with some notable exceptions:
- Scotland (United Kingdom) (16)
- British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Yukon Territory in Canada (though there are some exceptions in which Canadians may be considered legal adults in certain situations); Nebraska and Alabama in The United States, and South Korea (19)
- Indonesia (20)
- United States purchasing alcohol and entering bars has a minimum age of 21.
Since June 17, 2017, the legal adult age in Japan was changed from 20 to 18.
Social construction of adulthood
In contrast to biological perspectives of aging and adulthood, social scientists conceptualize adulthood as a socially constructed. While aging is an established biological process, the attainment of adulthood is social in its criteria. In contrast to other perspectives that conceptualize aging and the attainment of adulthood as a largely universal development, regardless of context, nation, generation, gender, race, or social class, social scientists regard these aspects as paramount in cultural definitions of adulthood.
Further evidence of adulthood as a social construction is illustrated by the changing criteria of adulthood over time. Historically, adulthood in the U.S. has rested on completing one’s education, moving away from the family of origin, and beginning one’s career. Other key historical criteria include entering a marriage and becoming a parent. These criteria are social and subjective; they are organized by gender, race, ethnicity, social class, among other key identity markers. As a result, particular populations feel adult earlier in the life course than do others.
Contemporary experiences of and research on young adults today substitute more seemingly subjective criteria for adulthood which resonate more soundly with young adults' experiences of aging. The criteria are marked by a growing "importance of individualistic criteria and the irrelevance of the demographic markers" of normative conceptions of adulthood." In particular, younger cohorts' attainment of adulthood centers on three criteria: gaining a sense of responsibility, independent decision-making, and financial independence.
Religion
According to Jewish tradition, adulthood is reached at age 13 (the minimal age of the Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah) for Jewish boys and girls; they are expected to demonstrate preparation for adulthood by learning the Torah and other Jewish practices. The Christian Bible and Jewish scripture contain no age requirement for adulthood or marrying, which includes engaging in sexual activity. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states, "A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age, and likewise a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age, cannot enter a valid marriage". According to The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman, the Christian Church of the Middle Ages considered the age of accountability, when a person could be tried and even executed as an adult, to be age 7.
See also
3References
- Maranz Henig, Robin (2010-08-18). "What Is It About 20-Somethings?". New York Times. p. 10. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
THE DISCOVERY OF adolescence is generally dated to 1904, with the publication of the massive study "Adolescence," by G. Stanley Hall, a prominent psychologist and first president of the American Psychological Association.
- International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology (1986)
- Churchill's Medical Dictionary (1989)
- (Chumlea, 1982).
- "For girls, puberty begins around 10 or 11 years of age and ends around age 16. Boys enter puberty later than girls-usually around 12 years of age-and it lasts until around age 16 or 17." "Teenage Growth & Development: 11 to 14 Years". pamf.org.
- Spooner, Samatha (July 14, 2014). "Legal ages of marriage across Africa: Even when it's 18, they are married off at 12!". Mail & Guardian Africa.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1985. “Perspectives on the life course.” Pp. 23-49 in Life Course Dynamics: Trajectories and Transitions, 1968 – 1980, ed. Glen H. Elder, Jr. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Settersten, Richard A. 1999. Lives in Time and Place: The Problems and Promises of Developmental Science. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company.
- Ryff, Carol D. 1985. “The Subjective Experience of Life-Span Transitions.” In Gender and the life course, by Alice S. Rossi, 97-113. New York: Adine.
- Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. 1998. “Learning to Stand Alone: The Contemporary American Transition to Adulthood in Cultural and Historical Context.” Human Development 41:295-315.
- Levinson, Daniel J. 1978. The Seasons of a Man’s Life. New York: Knopf.
- Shanahan, Michael J. 2000. “Pathways to Adulthood in Changing Societies: Variability and Mechanisms in Life Course Perspective.” Annual Review of Sociology 26:667-692.
- Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. 2001. “Conceptions of the Transition to Adulthood among Emerging Adults in American Ethnic Groups.” Journal of Adult Development, 8:133-143.
- Aronson, Pamela. 2008. “The Markers and Meanings of Growing Up: Contemporary Young Women’s Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood.” Gender & Society 22:56–82.
- Barrett, Anne. 2003. “Socioeconomic Status and Age Identity: The Role of Dimensions of Health in the Subjective Construction of Age Identity.” Journal of Gerontology 58: 101-110.
- Barrett, Anne. 2005. “Gendered Experiences in Midlife: Implications for Age Identity.” Journal of Aging Studies 19:163-183.
- Aronson, Pamela. 2008. “The Markers and Meanings of Growing Up: Contemporary Young Women’s Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood.” Gender & Society 22:56–82.
- Furstenberg, Frank F., Jr., Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Richard A. Settersten, Jr. 2005. “On the Frontier of Adulthood: Emerging Themes and New Directions.” In On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy, by Richard A. Settersten, Jr., Frank F. Furstenburg Jr., and Rubén G. Rumbaut, 3-25. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- Shanahan, Michael J., Erik J. Porfeli, Jeylan T. Mortimer, and Lance D. Erickson. 2005. “Subjective Age Identity and the Transition to Adulthood: When do Adolescents Become Adults?” In On the Frontier of Adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy, by Richard A. Settersten, Jr., Frank F. Furstenburg Jr., and Rubén G. Rumbaut, 225-255. Chicago: University of Chicago.
- Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. 2004. Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens through the Twenties. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Settersten, Richard A. 2011. “Becoming Adult: Meanings and Markers for Young Americans.” In Coming of Age in America: The Transition to Adulthood in the Twenty-First Century, by Mary C. Waters, Patrick J. Carr, Maria J. Kefalas, and Jennifer Holdaway, 169-190. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- canon 1083, §1
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