Youth Problems

Adolescence : to grow up is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage.

According to Erik Erikson's stages of human development, for example, a young adult is generally a person between the ages of 20 and 40, whereas an adolescent is a person between the ages of 13 and 19.

Historically, puberty has been heavily associated with teenagers and the onset of adolescent development.

However, the start of puberty has had somewhat of an increase in preadolescence (particularly females, as seen with early and precocious puberty), and adolescence has had an occasional extension beyond the teenage years (typically males) compared to previous generations. 

These changes have made it more difficult to rigidly define the time frame in which adolescence occurs.

The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function, and furthermore even within a single nation-state or culture there can be different ages at which an individual is considered to be chronologically and legally mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks. 

Such milestones include, but are not limited to, driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, completing certain levels of education, and marrying.

Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians and less supervision, contrary to the preadolescence stage.

Adolescence Stages

Nerve : tenses teenager, increasing stubbornness and anger in him, hoping to achievea claim is indifferent to the feelings of others or the way to achieve his demands .

Rebellion and individual opinion : where most teenagers complain of lack of understanding of his parents so the adolescent have to freedom himself from attitudes and wishes of his parents In the process of asserting himself and his Views and his opinions .

Adolescent sexuality refers to sexual feelings, behavior and development in adolescents and is a stage of human sexuality. Sexuality and sexual desire usually begins to intensify along with the onset of puberty. The expression of sexual desire among adolescents (or anyone, for that matter), might be influenced by family values and the culture and religion they have grown up in (or as a backlash to such), social engineering, social control, taboos, and other kinds of social mores.

In contemporary society, adolescents also face some risks as their sexuality begins to transform. Whilst some of these such as emotional distress (fear of abuse or exploitation) and sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS) are not necessarily inherent to adolescence, others such as pregnancy (through non-use or failure of contraceptives) are seen as social problems in most western societies. In terms of sexual identity, while all sexual orientations found in adults are also represented among adolescents, statistically the suicide rate amongst LGBTadolescents is up to four times higher than that of their heterosexual peers.

According to anthropologist Margaret Mead and psychologist Albert Bandura, the turmoil found in adolescence in Western society has a cultural rather than a physical cause; they reported that societies where young women engaged in free sexual activity had no such adolescent turmoil.