Adolescent development

[Greta]

During adolescence, children become young adults. They undergo striking physical, intellectual, and emotional changes. However, the path to adulthood is not a straight line. Adolescents do not simply become steadily more and more like adults with time. Rather, adolescents alternate between acting like adults and acting like children. As adolescents develop, they gradually spend more time behaving as adults and less time behaving as children.
During adolescence, people develop a sense of who they are and learn to form intimate relationships with people who are not members of the family. Guiding adolescents through this intricate period of development can be a challenge for parents. Risk-taking (such as engaging in violence and binge drinking) is common among adolescents and causes severe health risks. Unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or drug use, which cause serious problems later in life, also typically begin in adolescence.
(See also Problems in Adolescents.)

[Julene]

Adolescence is a developmental period during which dependent children grow into independent adults. This period usually begins at about age 10 years and lasts until the late teens or early 20s. During adolescence, children undergo striking physical, intellectual, and emotional growth. Guiding adolescents through this period is a challenge for parents as well as clinicians.

(See also Problems in Adolescents.)