Chapter Summary

Steinberg: Introduction, Adolescent Development in Context

Your text approaches the topic of adolescent development in a multidisciplinary fashion by drawing on the following disciplines: psychology, biology, history, sociology, education, and anthropology.

The goal of this book is to integrate the contributions from different disciplines into a coherent and comprehensive viewpoint on the nature of adolescent development.

Adolescenceóa transitional period roughly defined as the second decade of life. There are a variety of different boundaries one might use to define this period (e.g., biological, psychological, social). These boundaries should be viewed as a series of passages from immaturity to maturity. Research indicates that adolescents view psychological factors as more important than event-related transitions in distinguishing adolescents from adults.

Early, Middle, and Late Adolescenceósocial scientists have defined early adolescence as the middle school or junior high years, middle adolescence as the high school years, and late adolescence as the college years.

The Fundamental Changes of Adolescenceóspecifically the biological, cognitive, and social changes that are universal features of the adolescent period.

The Contexts of Adolescenceóusually families, peer groups, schools, and the workplace; they are highly variable across time and place.

Psychosocial Development During AdolescenceóThe central psychosocial concerns of adolescence revolve around the same basic issues that surface throughout the life cycle. But during adolescence, these concerns emerge in new forms and change in important ways. Psychosocial development during adolescence is the result of an interplay among the three fundamental forces and the context in which young people live. Thus, although the fundamental changes are universal, their impact on youngstersí development is mediated by the context in which they occur. In order to understand how adolescents develop in contemporary society, we need to understand the ways in which society has changed and how these changes have affected young people.

Many of our ideas about adolescence are based on erroneous and stereotypic misconceptions about the period. One of the purposes of the book is to provide students with a more realistic understanding of adolescence in contemporary societyóan understanding that derives from the scientific study of development.

Adolescence is a period of change, but not necessarily of stress. One important goal of studying adolescence is to understand the factors that make the period difficult for some individuals but not for others.