Concept of an “adolescent” :

A Survey of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the concept of an “adolescent” as perceived by adolescents themselves. Participants were mainly undergraduate students (N = 179) who responded to survey items about their impression of adolescents, the ages when adolescence begins and ends, and criteria for such recognition. Five impressions of adolescents were identified: positioning in life, positive evaluation, negative evaluation, socio‒cultural, and related impressions. The mean ages at which undergraduates perceived adolescence to begin and end were 16.37 years (SD = 2.38) and 25.37 years (SD = 5.93), respectively. The most common reasons for recognizing the start of adolescence were school transition, psychological changes, and timing of development. The most common reasons for recognizing the end of adolescence were transition to adulthood, school transition, and social change. The results of the analysis indicated that undergraduate students do not have a strong sense regarding the term “adolescent,” that some adolescents use the period in their lives characterized by events such as school transition and social changes to mark the beginning and end of their adolescence, and that understanding the concept of an “adolescent” is meaningful to adolescents themselves.