Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Adolescence, Overview

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology

  • 233 Accesses

Introduction

Young people’s lives are studied within many disciplines, use of the term “adolescence” (in preference to “youth”) being particularly associated with psychology. Founder of the American Psychological Association (APA) Granville Stanley Hall is widely credited with launching the scientific study of Western adolescence in 1904 with a wide-ranging two-volume treatise, drawing on recapitulation theory to universalize the adolescent as “evolving savage” yet also recognizing the power of socioeconomic and cultural context to shape the adolescent experience.

Definitions

Inasmuch as adolescence was a meaningful concept historically, boundaries of entry were reportedly more uncertain than those of exit (e.g., adulthood being unequivocally attained by marriage). By contrast, in the contemporary West there is broad consensus on pubertal onset as the marker of entry, a situation seen by some as making the category adolescence “natural” and almost immune to challenge (Stevens et al., 2007...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • American Psychological Association. (2002). Developing adolescents: A reference for professionals. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/cyf/develop.pdf

  • Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Committee on the Science of Adolescence. (2011). The science of adolescent risk-taking: Workshop report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, J. S. (Ed.). (1998). Youth culture: Identity in a postmodern world. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, R. (2010). Teen 2.0: Saving our children and families from the torment of adolescence. Fresno, CA: Quill Driver Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, D., Prilleltensky, I., & Austin, S. (2009). Critical psychology: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furlong, A. (Ed.). (2009). Handbook of youth and young adulthood: New perspectives and agendas. Abingdon, England: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, C. (2001). Imagining new narratives of youth: Youth research, the ‘new Europe’ and global youth culture. Childhood, 8, 147–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G. (2009). Key concepts: Youth. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesko, N. (2001). Act your age! A cultural construction of adolescence. New York: Routledge Falmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, M. (1978). Culture and commitment: The new relationships between the generations in the 1970s (rev. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morss, J. R. (1996). Growing critical: Alternatives to developmental psychology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Offer, D., & Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (1992). Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 1003–1014.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raby, R. (2010). Theorising liminal selfhood and its consequences for childhood, youth and adulthood. In H. Blatterer & J. Glahn (Eds.), Times of our lives: Making sense of growing up and growing old, Oxford, England: Inter-Disciplinary Press. (pp. 69–77). Retrieved from http://www.interdisciplinarynetpress.net/online-store/ebooks/persons-community/times-of-our-lives/

  • Stevens, L. P., Hunter, L., Pendergast, D., Carrington, V., Bahr, N., Kapitzke, C., et al. (2007). Reconceptualizing the possible narratives of adolescence. Australian Educational Researcher, 34, 107–127.

    Google Scholar 

Online Resources

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Counselling, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Monica Payne

Authors
  1. Monica Payne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monica Payne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Thomas Teo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Payne, M. (2014). Adolescence, Overview. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_482

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_482

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation