Preadolescence

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Preadolescence is a stage of human development through childhood that occurs in a child's years before adolescence.^[1]

Contents 1 Span 2 Psychological development 3 Freud on preadolescence 4 Preteen and tween 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Span

The point at which a child becomes an adolescent is usually defined by the onset of puberty. However, in some individuals (particularly females), puberty begins in the preadolescence years,^[2] and adolescence may extend a few years beyond the teenage years in others (typically males).^[3]

In terms of age in years, dictionary definitions generally designate preadolescence as the years from 10 to 13 (ages 10-12 for girls and 11-13 for boys),^[4] although there is no exact agreement.

[edit] Psychological development

Preadolescent children have a different view of the world from younger children in significant ways:

• May have a fear of kidnappings, rapes, and scary media events, as opposed to fantasy things (e.g., witches, monsters, ghosts).
• Have a more developed sense of looking into the future and seeing effects of their actions (as opposed to early childhood where children often do not worry about their future).
• Have more realistic job expectations ("I want to be an engineer when I grow up", as opposed to "I want to be a wizard").
• View human relationships differently (i.e. they may notice the flawed, human side of authority figures) .
• Begin to develop a sense of self-identity.
• Have increased feelings of independence.
• Have a different view on morality.
• More mature, sensible, realistic thoughts and actions
• Are responsible for younger siblings and relatives, such as babysitting.
• Often beginning to experience limerence, Puppy Love, or love.
• May start caring about what they look like and what they are wearing.
• May become more exposed to popular culture than childhood and may have interests that are more based on internet trends, television shows, movies, fashion, technology, and music, but are very shallow and corporate compared to the means of more rebellious and open teenagers. Preadolescents generally prefer certain brands, and are a heavily targeted market of many advertisers. Their tendency to buy brand-name items may be due to a desire to fit in, although the desire is not as strong as it is with teenagers. Many of these brands include clothing and music.

[edit] Freud on preadolescence

Sigmund Freud termed this the latency period, which he saw as a period of unparalleled repression of sexual desires and erogenous impulses. During the latency period, children direct this repressed libidal energy into asexual pursuits such as school, athletics, and same-sex friendships. He saw the latency period as a time of relative calm when there is little psychosexual conflict and unconscious conflicts and drives go underground and are therefore relatively inaccessible and unavailable. But soon puberty arrives, and the genitals once again become a central focus of libidal energy.

[edit] Preteen and tween

A preteen or a preteenager^[1] is a person under the age of thirteen.^[5] Generally, the term is restricted to those close to reaching age 13,^[1] especially ages 10–12.^[6]

Tween is an American neologism and marketing term^[7] for preteen. A blend of between and teen,^[5][6] "tween" in this context is generally considered to cover the age range from eight to twelve years.^[6]

The term was previously used in J.R.R. Tolkien's 1954 novel The Lord of the Rings to refer to Hobbits in their twenties: "...tweens as Hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and the coming of age at thirty-three."^[8] In this context, the word is really only a shortened version of between, and has no connection to "teens," preteens or the American marketing niche.

[edit] See also

• Precocious puberty
• Middle School

[edit] References

Myers, James. "Tweens and cool" [1], Admap, March 2004.

Preceded by Childhood

Stages of human development Preadolescence

Succeeded by Adolescence

v • d • e Human Development: Biological  • Psychological Pre- and perinatal Biological Prenatal development Psychological Pre- and perinatal psychology Infancy Biological Infant Psychological Infant and child psychology Childhood Biological Child development · Child development stages · Toddler Psychological Infant and child psychology · Preadolescence Adolescence Biological Puberty Psychological Youth development · Adolescent psychology Young adulthood Psychological Young adult (psychology) Middle adulthood Biological Middle age Maturity Biological Ageing · Senescence Psychological Old age Legal and general definitions Minor (law) · Infancy · Child · Childhood · Adolescence · Age of majority · Adult Theorists and theories Bowlby—attachment · Brofenbrenner—ecological systems · Erikson—psychosocial dev. · Freud—psychosexual dev. · Kohlberg—moral dev. · Piaget—cognitive dev. · Vygotsky—cultural-historical psych.