Blackwell Reference Online

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Youth and adolescence are terms which are often used interchangeably to refer to a phase of the life course between childhood and adulthood, yet are often positioned as contrasting approaches within academic discourse. Sociologists use the term youth to refer to a socially constructed life phase which is not only culturally specific, but which is also the product of particular historical conjunctures. Within this approach, youth is broadly construed as a collective experience which is shaped by social structures, age-specific institutions, and societal expectations. In contrast, the term adolescence emphasizes processes of individual social and/or physiological and psychological development and as such is much more closely associated with the disciplines of developmental psychology and clinical medicine. Within this approach the phase between childhood and adulthood is often equated with puberty, and is represented as a time marked by experimentation and emotional storm and stress. Classic theorists of adolescence include G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924) and Erik H. Erikson (1902–94). There are a number of different approaches to the sociological conceptualization of youth. An approach which has been particularly influential in recent years defines youth as a period of transition , emphasizing young people's movement through key transitional stages towards the attainment of adulthood. ... log in or subscribe to read full text