Encyclopedia of SociologyVol._1
.pdfLIST OF AUTHORS
Gerard Saucier
Department of Psychology
University of Oregon
PERSONALITY
MEASUREMENT
Erwin K. Scheuch
GERMAN SOCIOLOGY
David R. Schmitt
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
GROUP SIZE
Ronald J. Schoenberg
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
PROBABILITY THEORY
Howard Schuman
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
SURVEY RESEARCH
Joseph Scimecca
Department of Sociology
George Mason University
HUMANISM
David Sciulli
Department of Sociology
Texas A & M University
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATIONS IN
SOCIOLOGY
Karen Seccombe
Department of Sociology
Portland State University
ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES
Vimal P. Shah
Gujarat University, India
INDIAN SOCIOLOGY
Michael J. Shanahan
Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences
Pennsylvania State
University
ADOLESCENCE
Constance L. Shehan
Department of Sociology
University of Florida
PARENTAL ROLES
Larry D. Shinn
Berea College
WORLD RELIGIONS
James F. Short
Department of Sociology
Washington State University
CRIMINAL AND
DELINQUENT
SUBCULTURES
Robert W. Shotola
Department of Sociology
Portland State University
SMALL GROUPS
William Simon
Department of Sociology
University of Houston
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
John H. Simpson
Department of Sociology
University of Toronto
RELIGION, POLITICS, AND WAR
Richard Mcgrath Skinner
University of Virginia
POLITICAL AND
GOVERNMENTAL
CORRUPTION
David Smith
University of Kansas
GENOCIDE
C.Matthew Snipp
Department of Sociology Stanford University
AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES
David Snow
Department of Sociology
University of Arizona
CROWDS AND RIOTS
Subhash Sonnad
Department of Sociology
Western Michigan University
NONPARAMETRIC
STATISTICS
Kenneth I. Spenner
Department of Sociology
Duke University
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Rodney Stark
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Lauri Steel
American Institutes for
Research
FAMILY SIZE
Ardyth Stimson
Kean University
INTERPERSONAL
ATTRACTION
John Stimson
Sociology Department
William Paterson University
SOCIAL FORECASTING
Philip J. Stone
Department of Sociology
Harvard University
CONTENT ANALYSIS
David Strang
Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences
Cornell University
IMPERIALISM,
COLONIALISM, AND
DECOLONIZATION
Jeffrey J. Strange
Public Insight
CENSORSHIP AND THE
REGULATION OF
EXPRESSION
xxxiii
LIST OF AUTHORS
Raimondo Strassoldo
Dipartimento EST
University of Udine, Italy
NATIONAL BORDER
RELATIONS,
MANAGEMENT OF
Murray A. Straus
University of New
Hampshire
FAMILY VIOLENCE
Robin Stryker
Department of Sociology
University of Iowa
GOVERNMENT
REGULATION
Sheldon Stryker
Department of Sociology
Indiana University
IDENTITY THEORY SYMBOLIC INTERACTION
THEORY
Donald E. Stull
Department of Sociology
University of Akron
HEALTH AND THE LIFE COURSE
INTERGENERATIONAL RESOURCE TRANSFERS
J. Jill Suitor
Department of Sociology
Louisiana State University
REMARRIAGE
Teresa A. Sullivan
Univesity of Texas at Austin
BANKRUPTCY AND CREDIT
Deborah A. Sullivan
Department of Sociology
Arizona State University
BIRTH AND DEATH RATES
Gene F. Summers
Department of Rural
Sociology
University of Wisconsin,
Madison
RURAL SOCIOLOGY
Marvin B. Sussman
INHERITANCE
Richard Swedberg
Department of Sociology
Stockholm University
ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
Szonja Szelenyi
Department of Sociology
Cornell University
SOCIALISM AND
COMMUNISM
Jacek Szmatka
Jagiellonian University,
Poland
POLISH AND EASTERN EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGY
Karl E. Taeuber
Department of Sociology
University of Wisconsin
CENSUS
Irving Tallman
Department of Sociology
Washington State University
FAMILY POLICY IN
WESTERN SOCIETIES
Marylee C. Taylor
Department of Sociology
Pennsylvania State
University
PREJUDICE
James E. Teele
Department of Sociology
Boston University
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY (AND JUVENILE CRIME)
WHITE COLLAR CRIME
Bruno Tellia
Dipartimento Economia, Società, Territorio
Universita di Udine, Italy
NEGOTIATION OF POWER
Ann R. Tickamyer
Department of Sociology
The Ohio University
MACROSOCIOLOGY INFORMAL ECONOMY, THE
Marta Tienda
Office of Population
Research
Princeton University
HISPANIC AMERICANS
Jackson Toby
Sociology Department
The State University of New
Jersey, Rutgers
CRIMINALIZATION OF
DEVIANCE
Donald J. Treiman
Department of Sociology
University of California at
Los Angeles
STATUS ATTAINMENT
Gaye Tuchman
Department of Sociology
University of Connecticut
FEMINIST THEORY
Nancy Brandon Tuma
Department of Sociology
Stanford University
SOCIAL DYNAMICS
Austin T. Turk
Department of Sociology
University of California,
Riverside
POLITICAL CRIME
Herman Turk
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Jonathan H. Turner
Department of Sociology
University of California,
Riverside
POSITIVISM
Ralph H. Turner
University of California, Los
Angeles
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
Bernard Valade
The Sorbonne
FRENCH SCHOOL OF
SOCIOLOGY, THE
xxxiv
LIST OF AUTHORS
Gerard Saucier
Department of Psychology
University of Oregon
PERSONALITY
MEASUREMENT
Erwin K. Scheuch
GERMAN SOCIOLOGY
David R. Schmitt
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
GROUP SIZE
Ronald J. Schoenberg
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
PROBABILITY THEORY
Howard Schuman
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
SURVEY RESEARCH
Joseph Scimecca
Department of Sociology
George Mason University
HUMANISM
David Sciulli
Department of Sociology
Texas A & M University
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATIONS IN
SOCIOLOGY
Karen Seccombe
Department of Sociology
Portland State University
ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES
Vimal P. Shah
Gujarat University, India
INDIAN SOCIOLOGY
Michael J. Shanahan
Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences
Pennsylvania State
University
ADOLESCENCE
Constance L. Shehan
Department of Sociology
University of Florida
PARENTAL ROLES
Larry D. Shinn
Berea College
WORLD RELIGIONS
James F. Short
Department of Sociology
Washington State University
CRIMINAL AND
DELINQUENT
SUBCULTURES
Robert W. Shotola
Department of Sociology
Portland State University
SMALL GROUPS
William Simon
Department of Sociology
University of Houston
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
John H. Simpson
Department of Sociology
University of Toronto
RELIGION, POLITICS, AND WAR
Richard Mcgrath Skinner
University of Virginia
POLITICAL AND
GOVERNMENTAL
CORRUPTION
David Smith
University of Kansas
GENOCIDE
C.Matthew Snipp
Department of Sociology Stanford University
AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES
David Snow
Department of Sociology
University of Arizona
CROWDS AND RIOTS
Subhash Sonnad
Department of Sociology
Western Michigan University
NONPARAMETRIC
STATISTICS
Kenneth I. Spenner
Department of Sociology
Duke University
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Rodney Stark
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Lauri Steel
American Institutes for
Research
FAMILY SIZE
Sonia Stefanizzi
Department of Sociology
and Social Research
University of Milan-Bicocca
DATABANKS AND
DEPOSITORIES
Ardyth Stimson
Kean University
INTERPERSONAL
ATTRACTION
John Stimson
Sociology Department
William Paterson University
SOCIAL FORECASTING
Philip J. Stone
Department of Sociology
Harvard University
CONTENT ANALYSIS
David Strang
Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences
Cornell University
IMPERIALISM,
COLONIALISM, AND
DECOLONIZATION
xxxv
LIST OF AUTHORS
Jeffrey J. Strange
Public Insight
CENSORSHIP AND THE
REGULATION OF
EXPRESSION
Raimondo Strassoldo
Dipartimento EST
University of Udine, Italy
NATIONAL BORDER
RELATIONS,
MANAGEMENT OF
Murray A. Straus
University of New
Hampshire
FAMILY VIOLENCE
Robin Stryker
Department of Sociology
University of Iowa
GOVERNMENT
REGULATION
Sheldon Stryker
Department of Sociology
Indiana University
IDENTITY THEORY SYMBOLIC INTERACTION
THEORY
Donald E. Stull
Department of Sociology
University of Akron
HEALTH AND THE LIFE COURSE
INTERGENERATIONAL RESOURCE TRANSFERS
J. Jill Suitor
Department of Sociology
Louisiana State University
INTERGENERATIONAL
RELATIONS
REMARRIAGE
Teresa A. Sullivan
Univesity of Texas at Austin
BANKRUPTCY AND CREDIT
Deborah A. Sullivan
Department of Sociology
Arizona State University
BIRTH AND DEATH RATES
Gene F. Summers
Department of Rural
Sociology
University of Wisconsin,
Madison
RURAL SOCIOLOGY
Marvin B. Sussman
INHERITANCE
Richard Swedberg
Department of Sociology
Stockholm University
ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
Szonja Szelenyi
Department of Sociology
Cornell University
SOCIALISM AND
COMMUNISM
Jacek Szmatka
Jagiellonian University,
Poland
POLISH AND EASTERN EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGY
Karl E. Taeuber
Department of Sociology
University of Wisconsin
CENSUS
Irving Tallman
Department of Sociology
Washington State University
FAMILY POLICY IN
WESTERN SOCIETIES
Marylee C. Taylor
Department of Sociology
Pennsylvania State
University
PREJUDICE
James E. Teele
Department of Sociology
Boston University
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY (AND JUVENILE CRIME)
WHITE COLLAR CRIME
Bruno Tellia
Dipartimento Economia,
Società, Territorio Universita di Udine, Italy
NEGOTIATION OF POWER
Ann R. Tickamyer
Department of Sociology
The Ohio University
MACROSOCIOLOGY INFORMAL ECONOMY, THE
Marta Tienda
Office of Population
Research
Princeton University
HISPANIC AMERICANS
Jackson Toby
Sociology Department
The State University of New
Jersey, Rutgers
CRIMINALIZATION OF
DEVIANCE
Donald J. Treiman
Department of Sociology
University of California at
Los Angeles
STATUS ATTAINMENT
Gaye Tuchman
Department of Sociology
University of Connecticut
FEMINIST THEORY
Nancy Brandon Tuma
Department of Sociology
Stanford University
SOCIAL DYNAMICS
Austin T. Turk
Department of Sociology
University of California,
Riverside
POLITICAL CRIME
Herman Turk
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Jonathan H. Turner
Department of Sociology
University of California,
Riverside
POSITIVISM
xxxvi
LIST OF AUTHORS
Ralph H. Turner
University of California, Los
Angeles
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
Bernard Valade
The Sorbonne
FRENCH SCHOOL OF
SOCIOLOGY, THE
Maurice D. Van Arsdol, Jr.
Institute of International
Studies
University of Southern
California and Monterey
CITIES
Pierre L. van den Berghe
Department of Sociology University of Washington
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Brenda J. Vander Mey
Department of Sociology
Clemson University
INCEST
Wayne J. Villemez
Department of Sociology
University of Connecticut
POVERTY
Carlos H. Waisman
Department of Sociology
University of California,
San Diego
LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Walter L. Wallace
Department of Sociology
Princeton University
METATHEORY
Marilyn E. Walsh
ORGANIZED CRIME
Carol A. B. Warren
Department of Sociology
University of Kansas
ETHNOGRAPHY
Susan Cotts Watkins
Department of Sociology
University of Pennsylvania
FERTILITY DETERMINANTS
Frederick D. Weil
Department of Sociology
Louisiana State University
POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEMS
Joseph G. Weis
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
PROBATION AND PAROLE
Jack Whalen
Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
Martin K. Whyte
Department of Sociology
George Washington
University
CHINA STUDIES
Marion C. Willetts
Department of Sociology
and Anthropology
Illinois State University
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN MARRIAGE AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
Robin M. Williams, Jr.
University of California,
Irvine and Cornell
University
AMERICAN SOCIETY
Charles Winick
The Graduate School and
University Center
City University of New York
PORNOGRAPHY
DRUG ABUSE
Halliman H. Winsborough
DEMOGRAPHY
Christopher Winship
Department of Sociology
Harvard University
SAMPLE SELECTION BIAS
Lynne Woehrle
Wilson College
GROUP CONFLICT
RESOLUTION
Alan Wolfe
Boston College
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
HUMAN NATURE
James R. Wood
Department of Sociology
Indiana University
RELIGIOUS
ORGANIZATIONS
James D. Wright
Department of Sociology
Tulane University
PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
Robert Wuthnow
Department of Sociology
Princeton University
RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS
Grace J. Yoo
Asian-American Studies
Department
San Francisco State
University
INTERMARRIAGE
John H. Yost
Department of Psychology
John Carroll University
ROLE THEORY:
FOUNDATIONS,
EXTENSIONS, AND
APPLICATIONS
Rosalie F. Young
Department of Community
Medicine
Wayne State University
HEALTH PROMOTION AND HEALTH STATUS
Yih-Jin Young
Nassau Community College
EDUCATION AND
DEVELOPMENT
Morris Zelditch, Jr.
Department of Sociology
Stanford University
INTERPERSONAL POWER
xxxvii
LIST OF AUTHORS
Viviana Zelizer |
Richard A. Zeller |
Mary Zimmerman |
Department of Sociology |
Department of Sociology |
Health Policy and |
Princeton University |
Bowling Green State |
Management |
MONEY |
University |
University of Kansas |
|
RELIABILITY |
MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY |
|
|
COMPARATIVE HEALTH- |
|
|
CARE SYSTEMS |
xxxviii
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief, Edgar F. Borgatta
Managing Editor, Rhonda J. V. Montgomery
Consulting Editor, Marie L. Borgatta
ADVISORY EDITORS
Duane Alwin
George W. Bohrnstedt
Karen S. Cook
Herbert L. Costner
Eileen Crimmons
William D’Antonio
Doris R. Entwistle
Amatai Etzioni
Archibald O. Haller
Maureen Hallinan
David Heise
Beth B. Hess
Charles Hirschman
Joan Huber
Yoshinori Kamo
David Knoke
Gladys E. Lang
Stanley Lieberson
Seymour Martin Lipset
J. Scott Long
Coral B. Marrett
David Mechanic
Margaret Mooney Marini
Peter V. Marsden
Douglas S. Massey
Jill Quadagno
Matilda White Riley
Pepper Schwartz
William H. Sewell
James F. Short, Jr.
Teresa A. Sullivan
James Teele
Marta Tienda
Nancy B. Tuma
Robin M. Williams, Jr.
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY EDITORS
Vaneeta D’Andrea (Great Britain)
Mattei Dogan (France)
Alberto Gasperini (Italy)
Carl-Gunner Janson (Scandanavia)
Igor S. Kon (Soviet)
Judah Matra (Israel)
Georges Sabagh (Middle East)
Masamichi Sasaki (Japan)
Jacek Szmatka (Poland, Eastern Europe)
Vimal Shah (India)
xxxvii
A
ABORTION
See Family Planning; Pregnancy and Pregnancy
Termination.
ACCULTURATION
See Ethnicity.
ADDICTION
See Alcohol; Drug Abuse.
ADOLESCENCE
Recognition of the life stage between childhood and adulthood as a subject of modern scientific inquiry began in the early twentieth century with the publication of Antonio Marro’s La Puberta
(1898) and G. Stanley Hall’s highly influential compendium Adolescence (1904). Although Hall’s book represented an initial effort to describe adolescence, it nevertheless resonated with themes already familiar among scholars and the public. In Europe, romantic conceptions of a sexually charged, troubled youth (e.g., in Rousseau’s Émile) circulated among the socially concerned. In America, an established tradition of cautionary literature emphasized the impressionable nature of young people and their vulnerability to sin (e.g., in the essays and sermons of Cotton Mather). Hall incorporated many of these ideas into a Darwinian framework to conjure an ‘‘adolescence’’ recognizable to
his readers (Ross 1972). Although the work is viewed as a curious and difficult amalgam today, it nevertheless emphasized themes that continue to shape the study of youth.
Hall viewed adolescence through the lens of Ernst Haeckel’s biogenetic principle, which holds that the human life span recapitulates the phases of human biological and social evolution (Gould 1977). Hall maintained that late childhood corresponds to a period of peaceful savagery in the distant past, whereas adolescence represents a ‘‘neo-atavistic’’ period of migration into a challenging environment, which prompted physical, social, and psychological conflict and growth. This characterization of the adolescent, as troubled by all-encompassing turmoil, was contested early in the twentieth century by prominent behavioral scientists such as Edwin Thorndike (1917) and has been repeatedly challenged since then, perhaps most famously by Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) (but see Freeman 1983; Côté
1994). Likewise, sociologists such as Robert and Helen Lynd (1929) and August Hollingshead (1949) found little evidence of pervasive trouble among the youth of Middletown or Elmtown. Contemporary behavioral scientists take a more moderate view than Hall’s, depicting adolescence as a time of both change and continuity (e.g., Douvan and Adelson 1966). Nevertheless, the study of adolescence has been indelibly marked by the ‘‘storm and stress’’ motif.
Hall also maintained that adolescents are highly responsive to adult guidance. Drawing on work by
1
ADOLESCENCE
Edward Cope, a leading American proponent of the biogenetic principle, he believed that the influence of the environment in producing acquired characteristics that were then transmissible by heredity was greatest during adolescence. The implication of this Lamarckian view was momentous: The future development of the human race depended on improvements in the adolescent (Hall 1904, v. 1, p. 50). Indeed, as a leader of the Child Study Movement, Hall forcefully argued for collaborative efforts between pedagogy and the emerging discipline of psychology, creating schools that push adolescents to their physical and mental limits, and effect the ‘‘moral rejuvenation’’ of youth, society, and indeed the human race. A view of adolescence as a source of manifold revitalization was especially appealing to Hall’s readership, a Gilded Age middle class weary from concern over urbanization and the perceived cultural and eugenic threats posed by large-scale immigration into the United States (Kett 1977; Ross 1972). The view that adults can constructively regulate the socialization of youth is reflected in continuing scientific and public interest in the settings of youth (e.g., the workplace) and their implications for development.
Hall’s Adolescence was an interdisciplinary work, and drew from a wide range of sources, including writings by early sociologists such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Gustave Le Bon, and
Adolphe Quételet. The interdisciplinary study of youth remains an important theme, with many fields recognizing adolescence as a significant area of inquiry, including psychology (Petersen 1988), history (Modell and Goodman 1990), and anthropology (Schlegel and Barry 1991). Yet each discipline has its unique presuppositions and focal points. Psychologists tend to focus on adolescents’ cognitive, motivational, and emotional capacities; their maturation (often along universalistic lines, as one finds in the work of Piaget and Erikson), their interrelationships, and how they are shaped by experiences in proximal settings, including the family, peer group, school, and workplace. Anthropologists and historians focus on the range of experiences that adolescence encompasses across cultures and through historical time: the existence
of the adolescent life phase, its distinctive social and cultural traditions, and interrelationships among youth, other age groups, and social institutions.
Sociological studies of adolescence often overlap with these concerns, reflecting interests in the social settings of youth and their implications for the self, as well as variability in this stage of life across societies and through historical time. Yet sociologists have also maintained a unique view by drawing on the life course paradigm as an analytic framework. The life course focuses on age-graded roles, opportunities, and constraints; how these differ through historical time, and how they shape the biography. The analytic focus is on the structural complexity and diversity of social settings through time and place, as well as the plasticity of humans in these settings (Dannefer 1984).
The remainder of this entry will focus on three distinctive features of adolescence as viewed from a life-course perspective (see Table 1). The first feature concerns adolescence as a life phase in historical perspective: Has adolescence been a recognized part of the life course through historical time? And how have the factors that mark the transition both into and out of adolescence changed? Implicit in the concept of markers that distinguish adolescence from childhood and adulthood is the rate of movement from one phase to the next.
Accordingly, the second feature concerns how quickly young people move through the adolescent role set and the social circumstances that promote an accelerated life course.
The third feature focuses on the central role of institutionalized pathways through adolescence. In this context, pathways refer to routes from childlike dependence on the family of origin to the autonomies of adulthood. At the same time, individuals actively construct their lives. Within the structured pathways from childhood to adulthood, how do adolescents actively shape their biographies? Throughout this essay, social historical accounts are presented to underscore the highly variable nature of adolescence in the last two centuries; in turn, these accounts are juxtaposed with current sociological efforts to understand the social worlds of youth. The entry concludes by considering the dual role of sociologists in the study of adolescence: To contribute to substantive debates about the place of youth in society, but
2
ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence As a Phase of the Life Course
Features of Adolescence |
Core Idea |
|
1. Adolescence in social historical perspective |
Variability in the adolescent experience can be studied through the |
|
|
|
social history of youth. |
A. Historical permanence of adolescence |
Adolescence is a semi-autonomous phase of life that is not of |
|
|
|
modern origin. Adolescence is always changing in response to |
|
|
social forces. |
B. The boundaries of adolescence |
Adolescence is differentiated from childhood and adulthood by |
|
|
|
transition markers and roles. |
(1) |
From childhood to adolescence |
The pubertal transition was not always a critical marker between |
|
|
childhood and adolescence. |
(2) |
From adolescence to adulthood |
The transition markers have been compressed and their sequence |
|
|
has become more complex. |
|
|
|
2. Pace of movement through adolescent roles |
Social stressors may promote rapid movement into, through, and |
|
|
|
out of adolescent roles. |
|
|
|
3. Pathways through adolescence |
Pathways direct youth through social positions in organizations. |
|
A. Pathways in the school |
This pathway is defined by the transition to 8th grade, tracks, and |
|
|
|
transitions out of high school. |
B. Pathways in the workplace |
This pathway is defined by the adolescent work career: extent of |
|
|
|
work involvement, quality of work, and fit with other roles and life |
|
|
goals. |
C. Agency in pathways |
Adolescent planfulness is a critical resource with which to actively |
|
|
|
negotiate the life course. |
Table 1
also to identify how the contours of these debates are themselves the products of social forces.
Two additional features of adolescence are not covered in this entry. One involves the social relationships of youth, a subject that has been examined from several vantage points. Considerable attention has been devoted to the ‘‘sociometric’’ properties of peer relationships, mapping out affiliations among young people in high schools (see
Hallinan and Smith, 1989 for a contribution to this tradition). Relatedly, sociologists have also examined the typical personalities, behavioral patterns, and group identities of youth as they reflect responses to the social organization of the high school and this phase of life (e.g., Matza 1964).
Sociologists have also focused on youth and their intergenerational relationships: How youth are integrated into adult society (for example, see Coleman 1994), how they and their parents interrelate (for a useful review, see Dornbusch 1989), and how youth serve as agents of social change (for
a classic statement, see Mannheim 1928/1952). The second feature is juvenile delinquency (see
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY).
ADOLESCENCE AS A LIFE PHASE
Each phase of life reflects social norms and institutional constraints and serves as a principal source of identity for the individual by specifying appropriate behaviors and roles (Elder 1980). The study of adolescence as a life phase requires that it be situated in the life course, that its distinctive features be identified in comparison to both childhood and adulthood. Indeed, adolescence is frequently depicted as a transitional period of semiautonomy, reflecting movement from the complete dependence of children on their parents to the establishment of one’s own livelihood and family in adulthood (e.g., Kett 1974; Katz 1979; Gillis 1974). Yet the study of adolescence as a life phase also requires that it be situated in history,
3