Abstract:
Adolescence, the second decade of life, bridges childhood and adulthood, but also represents a host of unique experiences that impact health and well-being. Lifespan theories often emphasize the continuity of individual characteristics and their contexts from childhood to adolescence, underscoring the distal influence of childhood experiences. Yet, adolescence is marked by transitions that may provoke discontinuities, particularly within individuals, their contexts, and their interactions within those contexts. These discontinuities occur at varied times, orders, and intensities for individual youth, suggesting that adolescence may be a developmental turning point where earlier life experiences may be mediated, reversed, or transformed by proximal events. This perspective piece emphasizes the importance of considering transitions, discontinuities, and developmental turning points in adolescence as well as their potential to explain heterogeneity in adolescent and adult outcomes. We explore one biological and one contextual transition in adolescence and highlight innovative theories and methods for investigating continuity and discontinuity dynamics across development, which could lead to new insights related to the adolescent period and its importance in shaping future life trajectories.
摘要:
青春期,人生的第二个十年,桥梁童年和成年,但也代表了许多影响健康和福祉的独特体验。寿命理论通常强调从童年到青春期个体特征及其背景的连续性,强调童年经历的远端影响。然而,青春期的转变可能会引发不连续性,特别是在个人内部,他们的背景,以及它们在这些环境中的相互作用。这些不连续性发生在不同的时间,订单,和个体青年的强度,这表明青春期可能是一个发展的转折点,早期的生活经历可能会被介导,反转,或被近端事件转化。这个观点强调了考虑过渡的重要性,不连续性,和青春期的发展转折点,以及它们解释青少年和成人结局异质性的潜力。我们探索青春期的一个生物学和一个上下文过渡,并强调创新的理论和方法,用于研究整个发展的连续性和不连续性动态。这可能会导致与青少年时期相关的新见解及其在塑造未来生活轨迹方面的重要性。