- [Instructor] When we talk about adolescence,
we're talking about a transition period that exists
between childhood and adulthood.
But what does that actually mean?
Honestly, it means different things for different cultures.
So, cultures where children leave school after a few years,
and then go and find a job and are self-sufficient
by the time that they're teenagers,
they don't really have this adolescent period.
Even within Western cultures, the idea of adolescence
is sort of a new one.
Historically, children, and definitely teenagers,
were basically treated as kind of mini adults,
or just adults themselves.
I think that you could definitely have a long debate,
and I could definitely make a whole video,
about whether or not adolescence is a social construct.
But for today, in the U.S. and most of the Western world,
we would say that adolescence starts at the beginning
of sexual maturity and ends with independent adult status.
So that would mean living apart from your family
and having your own interests, your own job, et cetera.
Mostly, it's about being self-supported.
And when we talk about adolescence,
we typically say that it begins with puberty.
It's about a two year long period of sexual maturation,
during which time a person becomes capable of reproduction.
It starts at different times in males and females.
For males, it typically starts around age 13.
For females, it starts around age 11.
And again, that's just when it generally starts.
It could start earlier or later, depending on the person.
And although puberty is actually a process,
we usually associate it with two very specific incidents
that occur during this time, two landmarks.
For males, that event is their first ejaculation,
which usually occurs as a nocturnal emission.
For females, it's their first menstrual cycle,
or their first period.
Just like puberty starts at different times
for males and females, these milestones are also reached
at different times, usually around age 14 for boys,
and somewhere between 12 and 13 for females.
And this, as well as the earlier start time in general,
is why girls tend to be taller than boys
between the ages of 11 and 14.
But then, once boys catch up in terms of puberty,
they have a growth spurt and typically wind up being taller.
Aside from these milestones, puberty is also associated
with many physical changes.
These include two main things.
The first is primary sex characteristics.
This basically describes the development
of our reproductive organs, or the parts of our body
that are actually used for reproduction.
So this would include the testes in males
and the ovaries in females,
and just overall genital development in both groups.
And we say that they're primary sex characteristics
because these are the things
that make sexual reproduction possible,
which is, after all, what puberty is all about.
Puberty also brings about the development
of secondary sex characteristics.
These are nonreproductive sex characteristics.
Meaning that even though they are related
to sexual development, they are not required
for sexual reproduction.
And for males, this would include things
like a change in voice, and a growth of body hair,
and also a growth spurt.
For females, this includes the development
of breasts and hips.
For both genders, puberty tends to bring about
the development of both underarm hair and pubic hair.
There are a couple of things that we need to keep in mind.
First, is that the sequence of physical changes is
typically the same in all individuals.
However, the timing is not.
Some females enter puberty as early as age nine
or as late as age 16.
It depends on a ton of different things:
their height, their weight, their nutrition.
And usually, an earlier period or a late period isn't
actually a sign that anything is wrong.
It's just a sign of individual differences.
However, there are different social effects
that are associated with early puberty.
Boys that go through puberty early, who mature faster,
tend to be stronger and taller, and therefore more athletic,
and with that comes a number of social things.
They tend to be popular and self-assured and independent.
And, while I'm sure that we will all agree
that it's nice to be popular, it's nice to be liked,
but there are also some negative things
that are associated with early puberty in males,
things like increased tendency for delinquency,
and increased alcohol use.
For females, the story isn't really so clear.
In fact, there aren't really any positives
for going into puberty early.
These girls aren't typically more popular.
In fact, they're typically the focus of a lot of teasing
and sometimes even sexual harassment.
They tend to be out of sync with their friends
in terms of their interests.
And while a lot of it depends on the attention
that they get and the interactions that they have,
and the responses that they get from both adults
and their peers, early physical maturation in females
doesn't really go along with any positive social factors.