Adolescence in Historical Perspective.

Adolescence, as we know it, was barely recognized before the end of the last century. An examination of various written materials from the period 1800-1875 uncovers (1) almost no usage of the word and (2) only a limited degree of concern with the stage (and its characteristic behaviors). About 1900, however, G. Stanley Hall and his students made adolescence the focus of a new current of psychological study. Their work evoked a broad popular response though in subsequent years it was discredited in academic circles. The "discover" of adolescence can be related to certain broad changes in American life—above all, to changes in the structure of the family as part of the new urban and industrial order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]