Sunday, February 21, 2010

MEANING OF ADOLESCENCE

The term adolescence comes from the Latin words Adolescence meaning "to grow" or "to grow to maturity". As it used today, the term adolescence has a broader meaning. It includes mental, emotional and social maturity as well as physical maturity.
The term "Adolescence, youth and young people" are used differently in various societies. Thus categories are associated where they are recognized at all with different roles, responsibilities and ages that depend on the local context.

adolescences has been defined by the world health organization as the period of life spanning the ages between 10-19 years and youth as between 15-24 years. Young people are those between 10-24 years of ages. (WHO,1997). Adolescence is the second decade of life and it is a period of rapid development. Moreover, it is a time when growth is accelerated, major physical changes take place and differences between boys and girls are accentuated.

Adolescence is a transitional period from 10-19 years of ages during the period of rapid changes occurs in the baby. This period can be classified into two groups.


(a)Early adolescence
Early adolescence is the period of life spanning the ages between 10_14 years.

(b)late adolescence
Late adolescence is the period of life spanning the ages between 15-19 years.


During the past decade, young people and their health needs have been the subject of greater attention worldwide. Specially, the issues of adolescent's reproductive health global attention after the international conference population and development(ICPD,1994}, since adolescence is a time of mental and phychological adjustment and it a situation of being no longer then a child, but not get an adult either.


No comments:

Post a Comment