Adolescence

IS YOUTH THE BEST TIME OF A PERSON’S LIFE?

Reading

Read the text that follows below to say if these statements are true or false:

1. No other stage in the life cycle provokes as much questions and debate as youth.
2. The word ‘tranquil’ is the best to describe the average experience of teenagers.
3. Parents usually do not care about their teenager’s fashion, friends, hobbies, music, lifestyle and other things.
4. At the age of adolescence people are socially responsible and psychologically mature.
5. At the age of young adulthood people are entitled all adults’ rights.
6. People enter the age of mature adulthood and usually settle down in their 40ies.

Youth as a Stage of Human Development

No other stage in the life cycle provokes as many questions and debates as youth – the period between childhood and adulthood,the age somewhere between 12 and 30. The age of youth may further be subdivided into adolescence (roughly the years between the ages of 13 and 18), and young adulthood (it begins with the age of 18 and goes on to somewhere around 30).

Adolescence

During the transitional period of adolescence young people face with changes in their bodies, emotions, and personalities. They move beyond their rather limited world of childhood and begin experimenting with the behaviour, beliefs, and attitudes of adults. At this age they mix some qualities of childhood with some of adulthood, and the word " turbulent " is perhaps the best to describe the average experience of teenagers.

Very often teens run into many problems: bullying and drugs, running from home and dropping out from school, jails and prisons, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy – these are just a few problems to mention here.

Parents usually worry about their child more than their teenager worries about himself or herself. To protect their child they often exercise their power and limit their child’s rights: parents do not allow to go where their son or daughter would love to go, they give orders and prohibitions, they may beagainst their child’s fashion, friends and a girl/boy friend, hobbies, music, lifestyle and other things their child appreciates so much. As the result the good relationship between them and their child is often broken at this age, and the tense parents-children relationship contributes to the most typical problem of teenagers which is called ‘ the generation gap’.

Most of teenagers, however, overcome the challenges of adolescence and settle into being young adults.

Young adulthood

The age of young adulthood has always been regarded to be the nicest period of human lives.

At the age of young adulthood people become more socially responsible and more psychologically mature. They are entitled all adults’ rights: rights for voting in elections, for driving, marrying, working in some jobs, and buying such restricted goods as alcohol. Itis also the period of life when young people do the most important decisions for their future family and career.

Young adults become less dependent or fully independent of their parents or other relatives for support because they may work full-time. If they are students and fully supported by parents they may be free from daily winning of their bread.

If not married they are free from the burden of responsibility which brings the parenthood. With morefree time and fewer family responsibilities than adults they have a wealth of leisure opportunities: going to health clubs and gyms, dining out, shopping, watching TV, reading, attending musical concerts, going to the cinema, theatre, spending time with friends -- these are only a few of the options open to them.

Young adults are generally in good health and high spirits, physically fit and attractive. They strive for love, intimacy, and compassion, they seek to form intense, usually romantic relationships with other people. In a college environment – where everyone is roughly the same age and with the same aspirations – emotional interactions may be very intense.

The period of young adulthood lasts somewhere until the early 30ies when most of the young people enter the age of mature adulthood and usually settle down: they advance their careers, gain promotions and raises, get stability in their personal lives and start a family.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29