CHAPTER 16 

Cross-Cultural Issues in the
Stu(l)' q(Adolescent DevelojJln,ent
'\: Jel SCHJJCiLL
Anthrop()logists hav\;.' long cOllsidered crosscultural
studies to be among their disciplinary
specialties. Howe\er. since any foreign cultun:
is "een through the len" of the observer'"
home culture, une could argue that all observations
or foreign cultures are by their very
nature cross-cultur..lI. not only those by anthropologists.
Cross-cullural studies. therefore.
could include the ethnographies. or descriptive
reports. by ohservers throughout history.
"uch as the \\Titings of Herodotus. the letters
the Jesuits and Franciscans sent home from the
New World. and the reports of traders. travelers.
and colonial administrator" since at leust
the sixteenth century. Nevertheles". the systematic
study of other culture" jl., a special feature
of anthropology.
Explicit comparison has been a feature of
anthropology from it:-. beginning. Attempts
to classify similarities and differences across
cultures include even the long-discredited
attempts in the nineteenth century to understand
cultural evolution. which divided cultures
into those at the stages or Savagery.
Barbarism. and Civili/alioll (Morgan. 1ti77).
The earl iest scholarly paper Llsing statIstical
techniljues to analyze culture traits in a sample
of culture" also dates from the late nineteenth
century (1~!lor. I XX9).
One i1llpact of anthropology on the
other social sciences has been to influence
other disciplines to ieq a<"sllll1ptions and
findings. based on re<.,earch in modern Western
societies. with data from nOI1-Western cultures.
P..,ychologish responded hy looking at psychological
is"ues with subjects from other cultures.
In the early 19601.,. John Berry wa" testing
\Vestern models of perception among the
Eskimo (Berry. \9(6). and not many years later
Pierre Dasen wa,', addressing Piagct"s research
from a cros,,-eultural perspective (Dasen. 1972).
The Journal Cross-CII/rural Psychology,
the earliest of such journals. appeared in 1966
(Berry. Poortinga. Segall. & Dasen. 1992;
Segall. Dascn. Berry. & P00l1inga. 19(0).
Anthropologists also benefited from the
research theories and methods of psychology.
Psychological anthropology depended heavily on
personality theory developed by psychologists.
Some anthropologists refined their observational
techniques by making systematic ooservations of
target individuals who represented specific categories
by sex and age) within the population
they studied. thus moving from the cultural
to the individual level. Others u"ed Thematic
Apperception Test cards to elicit stories that
reflected cullUraJ theme" or pCN)l1ality traits or
interpcr"onal relatiolls (Schlegel. 1977!.
The del iberate hridgi ng of disciplines was
expressed in the mid-twentieth century by
the introduction 01 interdisciplinary programs
in some respected 111liver"ities. <.,uch '-I" the
I thall~ Herher! Barr~ III for reading alld ,alLlahle comment:; on tlli" chapter. Hc wa~ co-author with
11K of 1110:;1 of till' l'w",,-cuiturai studic>" from which informatl()n pn:scnlcd here W<t,>" dru\\ 11. ~lIld I gratefully
~(d,ll()\" kdgl' his ipLij"pl'llsahk C(llllrihutl(lll 1(1 rIW"t' studie".
.5711
;me~na:rurlt:nt of Social Relations at Harvard.
A1'1lthr'ODlolOgists, psychologists, and socicollaborated
on research and teach:-"pHleu
cross-disciplinary training.
It was in this intellectual climate that the
y for Cross-Cultural Research (SCCR)
founded in 1972 by George Peter
Murdock and others. Although for most of his
Murdock was in the Department of
, with some other social scientists. The
"ml~mlherShl' p has retained that proportion of
lV.a"',-'IJIJ-CULTURAL STUDIES OF
ADOLESCENCE
Psychologists and sociologists, using Western
subjects, have conducted most ofthe research on
adolescence. As these disciplines gained wider
distribution throughout the world, non-Western
.,. psychologists, in particular, studied the adolescents
of their own cultures. This type of crosscultural
research blends theories and methods,
derived mainly from European and American
sources, with a deep understanding of the local
culture and condjtions. Research on Indian adolescent
girls by Saraswathi and Dutta (1988)
and Sharma (1996) provide good examples of
the insights such an approach can reach.
In spite of the success of Margaret Mead's
CominR of Age in Samoa (1928), which was
a study of Samoan adolescent girls, cultural
anthropologists have until recently showed
little interest in adolescence or adolescent
development. They continued to refer to the
rituals performed at around puberty in many
societies as initiation into adulthood. This was
so even after the work of Mead and, later, a
few other anthropologists (e.g.. Elwin, 1947;
Wilson. 1951) clearly showed that a socially
marked stage of life between childhood and
Cross-Cultural Studies of Adolescence 571
adulthood existed in the preindustrial and preliterate
societies they examined. Exceptions to
this genera] absence of anthropologica1 studies
of adolescence are cross-cultural studies
of initiation ceremonies by Cohen (]964) and
Young (] 965). the latter a social psychologist.
In both. the authors refer to a subsequent adolescent
stage. but they do not discuss it.
The lack of interest by anthropologists
in adolescence may have been due in part
to assumptions about adolescence. It was
assumed by many that an adolescent stage is
the social construct of modern societies. with
schools that separate postpubertal individuals
from adults for much of the time. According to
this assumption, before widespread schooling
appeared, teenage girls and boys were thought
of as young adults, with adult-like responsibilities
and interests. Anthropologists. who for
the most part studied pre1iterate and preindustrial
cultures, gave little attention to the developmental
stage of indi viduals past puberty.
Another reason for the neglect of adolescence
may have come from psychology.
Psychological anthropologists of the midtwentieth
century, whose primary interest lay in
the development of personality, were strongly
influenced by Freudian and other branches of
psychology that regard early influences as the
determinants of adult personality and behavior.
According to Freud. for example. significant
socialization declines once young people
have passed through the period of latency and
reach the genital stage (Hall, 1954). Anthropologists,
particularly psychological anthropologists,
reported on the behavior of children, but
they neglected adolescents. Thus, while there
was plenty of evidence of adolescence in the
ethnographic and historical literature-indeed,
a later cross-cultural study of adolescence
(Schlegel & Barry. ]991) would have been
impossible without such evidence-it was usually
buried in discussions of other topics or
mentioned in passing.
Coming (~f Age in Samoa (Mead, 1928)
presented a challenge that most other anthropologists
did not take up. Mead's doctoral
372 (·ru-.-.-(ultural bsues in thl' SwlI.\ 01 \dolesccnt De.l'I0plllelll
di\\~11allOIl. the ba\I". lor her Iwoh. \\as 'Ite".l \)1
Iht a\"umpti(J1l that ad()ie\Lell~e 'Xa... ~l tinw
01 Slllflii /tw/ and that thi". it\t'lf \\
hiul(lt:i~'all) detertllined h) IHlrl1lunai
Llnd their LOIl\L~LJuel1ce,>. Mead'" \\ ~)rL. \\ Illch
purported to di"credit that wa\
her,tided h) man) anlhropologi"h as a triumph
of cultural mel Lkterl11inisllL
By tile lLJ7()...... interest irl adoie\cencc had
\()l11t'lhing or ~I I'<.:\i\ al amollt:
anthropoiut:iq". Two cn ),,\-cllilltral
re\earch prujects un adolescence \,Vcre e.,tablished
at thi:-- time. one Beatrict· ;lI1d John
Whiting (tv-v'o alHilrup(ljogist..... ) at Han;lrd, ami
olle b) Herher! Barry II I (1
alld AIICl' Schlegel (all anlhrup()iogist) at the
Univer.....ity uf Pittsburgh. All uf the.....e rt~.....earcher.....
had done c01llparati\'(~ .....LUdie" of earlier
stages in human development. The \Vhitings
had organized the Six Culture:-. Projec1 in
the 1LJ50:-.. which resulted in monographs by
anthropologi'it-. and psychologists on child
:...ocializLltiol1 in six cultures. Schlegel and
Barry had conducted cros:-.-cultural research Oil
adolescent initiation ceremonies (Schlegel &
Barry. 'l)g()} and adolescent games (Schlegel
& Barry, 199C»). and Barry had participated in a
large hody of cross-cultural re:-.earch 011 childhood......ome
of it reproduced or cited in Barry
and Schlegel ( ll)~O). Schlegel (]l)73) had also
v,Titten 'The Adolescent Socialization of the
Hopi G'irl." based on her field ohservations of
Hopi daily life and the recollection:-. of middleaged
and ()Id wumen, Jn both the Pittsburgh
and the Hanard project:-.. interest ill adolescence
seemed to gww naturally out or research
on carlier stages und the questions that arose
out of this research. jw..;t a" many longitudiIlal
qudies of psychological development that
hegan in infancy grew into :--tudie..... of adoleseence
as their "amples
The Han ard and Pittsburgh cros,,-cultural
project:-. differed in their method, The Han ard
/\dnlescence PI'( ,,(:.'111 antitropologist-. to
:--e\t~n widely dispersed site:-- of vel') different
cullure:-. to conduct dewi led studie" ()f adulescellt
lile. or thc:-.e ,,(:'\el1 :-.IlILiies. four hel\ e
puhl!"ilt.'LI Ct.'- hook ...
jJj'cs" in the '>erie:-- "Ad()je"cclE, in a '-llc.tlI![Tln.,.. 

World." TIll' hthhurgll project. 

a'- tIle ALlnk-scenl Sociali/utiol1 

Ill,' StanJard LthJlographic Sample 

&: \\'hile. 1<J6l) J. Coder:-. collected data 

Jrom etilnographic material Oil these cultures 

and lilt' prillL'ipaJ illvcstig,Hor\ analyzed ' 

Il1lcrpreted I he'it' data, The data \",'ere 

III alld Schkgel (\Yl)()) and the ana­

lytic finding,> ill Schkge; ,lilt! Barry (199]). 

(Spcc'ific worb rL..... lIltil1,~ from the Harvard 

and Pillshurgh will be di:-.cussed fur~ 

ther ill d later seclion of rhi'> chapter.) 

At ahout the "a11le lime that these projects
v... ere there was a renewed hurst of
intere:-.t among "onle in bio.·
logical explanatiolh, Thi, \;va:-- the result of
re"earch hy animal beha\lorist:-; and biological
Llntilropologi:--t:-. on rcproduclI \t' behavior in
animal POPUllitiol1s. including our dosest relatives
among the rrimah.:s. This research program.
nen-Darwinian in its premises. put into.
motion the development of a nt'\\ field. sociobiology.
which ha..... nov\' matured into the more
nuanced dis(:iplines of ev()ll1Li~lI1ary psychology
and ecology. Any study of
reproductive behavior in humans. and indeed in
our prinwte J.\in. the monkeys and ape...... cannot
adolescence. when hornlOnaJ changes
underiie the 1110t[\'ation to find a sexual partner
and hegin a reproductive career. even though
the indi\'idual has not ye1 reached full physical
and social development (cL Weisfeld. 1949).
Anthropologists during these years were
raL'l~d with i.l new form of an old dilemma,
the questioll or human LIlli \ersals \'er"us the
uniqueness of cultures. TllUSl' wilu "uessed
the lllli\crsalities of' human behuvior were
orten at odds \\ ith those wIw ar,!;!ued for the
importance of local cultural determination in
molding nol ollly beilelS and value..... but also
heha\lor generally. SOlllewhere in the middle
\'.ere those \vlw. lihe the pre,>el1l author, hold
that there are c\ ohed rb~cilOlo.!:'il'ul L'Olhtants
that are l'xpre"sed hehu\'iorally in \arious
\\ ay" depemlin,~ Oil I'ealures or the natural and
Central Issues in the Cross-Cultural Study of Adolescence 573
,,:Y;rOIlml=DtS. These include anything
'prevalence of war to the availability
,fer hunting or the practices carried
verting to a new religion. Some
may be cultural, but behavior
influenced by demographic condifeatures
to which culture itself
Apictorial model is not so much one
and effect as of multidirectional
and responses with feedback loops,
strict division between nature and
cross-cultural is used rather loosely
several modes of research and anaJsimplest,
cross-cultural studies anain
another culture as an impJied
with the culture of the investigas
(1966) study of perception among
serves as an example in psycholmany
of the case studies done by
·sts. The book-length case studadolescence
that resulted from the
Adolescence Projects are among
investigations of non-Western adolife
in the anthropological literature.
and analyze adolescence among
. (Condon, 1987), an Australian
community (Burbank, 1988), the
·"''',''-''I..IU. (Hollos & Leis, 1989), and in
Morocco (Davis & Davis, 1989). A
{je~:crilpti(m of the Harvard Adolescence
cross-cultural studies examine a parvariable,
a behavior or culture trait, in
.several cultures or nations (the latter is
cross-national), and usually offer
tion for the similarities or differOne
study of this type developed by
Iogists js the controlled comparison.
common form is a comparison of
two cultures that are similar in most
respects but differ in the behavior or
trait of interest (i.e., the similarities are
controlled fOr). An alternative is a comparison
of (usually) two cLlltures that are different in
most respects but are similar in the variable of
interest controlling for the differences. In both
instances, the point is to explain the difference
or similarity. respectively. in the dependent
variable. The study by HoJIos and Leis
( 1989) of adolescence in two Ibo villages. one
more modern and one more traditional, is an
example of the first form.
Cross-cultural research has a more specific
meaning than the general one, which applies to
all research that compares cultures. In its specific
sense, it refers to tests of hypotheses
using ethnographic materials from a large representative
sample of cultures. Data are coded
from these materials according to a codebook.
which consists of the variables to be coded
(e.g.. present/absent or along a scale) and their
operational definitions. The data are then analyzed
using appropriate statistical techniques.
and the findings are interpreted. For example.
appendices I, II. and III of Schlegel and Barry
(] 991) contain information on the sample. the
codebook. and the statistical techniques used
in their cross-cultural study of adolescent
socialization.
CENTRAL ISSUES IN THE
CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF
ADOLESCENCE
Biological adolescence 1S universal. Recent
research into the structure and processes of
the developing brain make it clear that there
are neurobiological changes as well (Steinberg
et aI., 2006), and we can safeJy assume that
these too are universal. The consensus is not so
clear regarding adolescence as a stage of social
development, however.
Scholars conducting cross-cultural research
on adolescence have asked several fundamental
questions in this respect. Is social adolescence
uni versal. or is it only found in a limited nUIllber
of societies. modern ones with schooling
and perhaps a few others'! When does social
adolescence begin and when does it end'! What
are the characteristics of social adolescence.
574 Cr()~~-Cultural JsSllt'~ in the Stud~ of Adolescent Development
and hu\~ j" it "ill1ilar or Jifterent acrm" culture':.}
\Vhich feature" of adolescc:nce differ
bemeen girb and ho)". and which arc similar'!
And finall). if social adolescence is univer"al.
why doe" our "pecies. Homo sopiens. have this
perind between puhen) and the socially recognized
stage or adulthood?
The primary ...,OUITe or data for addrc:ssing
these questions here is the research of the
Adolescent Socialization Project. Unless othenl,'l"e
noted the data ill thi" "cction are drawn
frorn the re"ulting publication of the findings
(Schlegd & Harry. 19Y I ). Thi~ book reponed
011 only <.! portion or the 34] variables in the
project. coded separately for girls and boys.
Dalu came from ethnugraphic materials on
cultures in the Standard Ethnographic Sample
(Murdock & White, 146Y). a worldwide reprc;-.,entati\
e sllmple of known reported preindustrial
cultures. or the 186 cultures in the
sample. 181 had information on adolescence
that could be coded. (Details are found in the
texl and appendices in Schlegel and Barry
!199 J J.) These are all traditional cultures. and
the ethnographic material Oil each refers to a
specific community at a particular time.
Is Adolescence as a Social Stage
Universal?
Here we have the "black swan" problem: One
contrary case can negate the generalization,
unless it can be accounted for by special circumstances.
All of the cultures in the sample,
with one possible exception with respect to
girls, recognized a social stage between childhood
and adulthood for both sexes, during
which time the behavior and treatment ofyoung
people differed from that oj both younger children
and adults. In several cases there was an
additional stage between adolescence and full
adulthood. which we termed yowh, for one or
hoth sexes. Such a stage. somewhat similar to
what Arnell (2001) has called "elTlerging adulthood:'
is a feature of most regions and social
L'ias".c<; or Illodern societies. It also existed in
some traditional ones slich a;-., ancient Athens
and Sparta. Eurnpe since at lea"t the Middle
Ages. and militaristic state" oj Africa like
Zulu. Arnett (200 I) hu." conceptualized the
youth stage of modern societies a"
adulthood." with characteristic features
that differentiate it quite markedly from the
institutionalized youth stage" of preindustrial
societies.
Given the great variely of cultures in the
sample by geographical placement. by subsistence
techniques from hunting to advanced
agriculture, and level of technological
development. we can be fairly confident that
social adolescellce is <.l constant aeross cultures
for hoth sexes. [ts absence rather than its presence
requires an explanation.
cfhere may be at least two exceptions. one
in the Standard Ethnographic Sample and
one other, to the generalization that adolescence
is a social universal. Girls of the Gros
Ventre Indians of Montana and girls of some
Australian aboriginal tribes (Burbank. 1(88)
married and had sexual relations with their
husbands before menarche. Aboriginal girls
as young as 9 or lOin some cases. We do not
have information on the lives of these girls,
except that Gros Ventre co-wives. older than
the new bride, treated her as a little sisler. It
is impossible to say whether an adolescent
stage was acknowledged for these very young
wives or whether they were treated as adults
and expected to behave like them. Nor do we
know if the transition from childhood was
marked by very early signs of puberty, which
would mean that girls entered an adolescent
stage before menarche. whether or not it ended
at marriage. \Ve do know that in at least one
Aboriginal tribe, the Aranda, social adolescence
began with the appearance or thL' breast
bud", an early sign of puberty.
Many cultures have a special term for adole"cence
as a period hctween childhood and
adulthood. but most do not. We should not
confuse the presence or absence of Jinguistic
markers with social reality. however. The
Navajo Indians of New Mexico and Ari/ona.
whose language does ha\'e term". for udolescem
girl and adolescent boy. did not have
Central Issues in the Cross-Cultural Stud~ of Adolescence 575
distinctive markers in appearance or
(Je-~I-'\.''-H· Ie behaviors to set off this stage.
the other hand. their neighbors the Hopi.
language does not have terms for adoheld
public events where adolesgirls
and boys could display themselves.
. girls after menarche wore their hair in
style that signaled that they were ready
courtship. In another case, the Trobriand
"Y;"n... nl"",." of Melanesia spoke of adolescents as
flower of the village," without giving this
a label.
The Parameters of Adolescence
The difficulty in determining age at the beginning
and end of adolescence lies in the absence
of good data on chronological age for most of
the cultures in the Standard Ethnographic
Sample. Age can only be estimated. A bet.ter
measure, more in line with the way most
peoples regard social age, is level of physical
development. Although such features of physical
development as tooth eruption (Bogin,
1999) and brain development (Steinberg et aI.,
2006) seem to be universally consistent, reproductive
maturation for both sexes is variable
according to diet and possibly other conditions
(Vizmanos & Marti-Hennenberg, 2001).
For this reason, we defined social adolescence
as beginning at around first menstruation and
first ejaculation, unless otherwise indicated.
We estimated menarche to be around age 14
in these relatively well-nourished popUlations,
with spermarche 1 or 2 years later, unless there
was information to the contrary, basing our
estimates on Eveleth and Tanner (1976). There
are several cases of girls' social adolescence
beginning before menarche with earlier signs
of pubel1al change. such as breast development.
The Aranda, mentioned earlier, is one
such case.
Length ofAdolescence and Youth
In most cultures social adulthood began at
marriage. particularly for girls. In a few, full
social adulthood was reached after one or more
children were born to a couple. In other cases. a
ceremony other than marriage marked the transition
from boy to man. For the Hopi Indians of
Arizona, a girl became a woman at marriage.
but a boy became a man when he was initiated
into one of the four male ceremonial societies.
He did not marry until after this event.
Length of social adolescence can vary
between the sexes within a culture. In fact. boys'
adolescence is frequently longer than girls'
adolescence. Boys, whose growth spurt follows
spermarche, do not reach their full physical
development until some time after puberty,
rarely before their late teens in the populations
of the sample. Girls, whose growth spurt precedes
menarche, develop adult-like bodies
much earlier (although they go through a period
of adolescent sub-fecundity before they are
capable of maintaining a pregnancy) (Bogin,
1999). Thus, they are likely to be considered
ready for adult life earlier than are their male
peers, who have not yet attained an adult-like
body. This, then, is a reason, grounded in biological
development, for a longer adolescence
for boys than for girls.
A cultural reason for a longer male adolescence
is that boys generally have to prove
themselves capable of meeting the obligations
of husband and father before the parents of a
prospective bride will accept him as a son-inlaw.
For both biological and social developmental
reasons, the end result is that boys may
still be considered adolescents or youth while
the girls of their cohort are already married
adu1ts and bearing children.
A youth stage, when present typically
begins and adolescence ends when the young
person has attained full or almost fuII physical
growth. This is rarely before the late teens.
Indi viduals at that age are more developed, not
only physically but also cognitively (Hooper,
2004), than boys and girls in their early teens.
When full social adulthood is not reached until
after the late teen-age years, usually sometime
in the early to middle 205 or even later, cultures
generally recognize a social stage that intervenes
between adolescence and adulthood.
576 Cros,,-Cultural Is<,ucs in th(' Stud, of Adolescent De\ e10I.Hllent
During this "wge. yuung pe()ple have more
respull"ibilitie<.... and usually more freedom.
than ad()le~cenh. withtlut the: <.:Inc!
social recognitioll of adulthood. This sta~e
of "youth" or "emerging aduiihuod" (Arnett.
200 I) wu<., common for males in cultures in
which they spenl a period or time before mara"
warriors or ill other role~.
while did not have such an In"· ..·"...,nl stage
hut married within a few years of menarche.
\A/hen marriage for most girls was delayed as
\\:ell. ~h it has l)een for most social classes in
Europe since at leasl till' sixteenth century. girls
u" well as hoy" passed through a youth stage
(Levi &. Schmitt. 1l)L)7: Mitterauer. IY92}.
f\,larriage and the Begillllillf,; of
A.duitilood
If marriage marks the beginning oj adulthood.
the length of adolescence or youth on
the factor:.. that determine the timing of marOne
of these factors is the economic
opportunitie" provided 1<) hoy" and youth that
allow them to meet the obligations of marAnother
factor is whether youth are
given special social roles. ~;Llch as warrior. that
preclude marriage. A factor determining the
age of marriage for girls is the henefit of keeping
a daughter at home for the labor or income
she provides. This has to be v.ieighed against
the present or future benefits a son-in-law provides
through his labor. economic or social
connections. or goods. the last in the form of
hride wealth (Schlegel & ElouL 1(88).
Marriage strategies and negotiations were
important elements in the social lives of most
traditional ,,,....,'IJ......'. who sought to use the marriage....
oj' their children I'ur ecollomic and pulitieal
benefit and to maintain or improve the
social position of their families (Schlegel &
Eloul. 19XX). This is generally true for societie"
of' ~lll type". from simple foragers (hunters
anu gatherers) tu complex traditional states.
In and Eur()pean-derived socictie".
and more n:cently in modernizing olles.
industrialization vveakened the economic hold
that most families had 011 their adolescent
and ()lder unlllarried children. This Ile\\ economic
formution pr(l\'ideu boys. and later
girb a" \\e11. \\jtl1 opportunities for economic
independence that had been undreamed of
for 1l10"t. Family n;"ource" that get a
spou"e. whether economic or social Ic.g.. kinship
connections). receded in importance.
Per"onal effort plus ability became a path to
succes" for many Illore than just a few exception:.!!
individuals. Family control ovcr daughter"
a" well as "om dl:c1ined a.s educational and
occupational opportunities opened up to them.
As girl" hecame more independent. hoys and
young men could direct their appeal as suitors
to the girh themselves. without as much regard
for their parenh Ll" in earlier limes. Adult" lost
considerahle <..Illthority over the young or both
sexes as marital pro"pec(<... more on
personal resources other than familial ones.
such as tho,>c the potential partners
could obtain by themselves.
Before we generalize too broadly about the
dependence of the young on their families. we
must recognize that there have always been
sectors in many societies. not just the less
privi leged in class-based one\. ill which the
marital prospects of young males were poor
and only ability and luck could help them
sLlcceed. Even the Hopi have tales of orphan
boys without kinship support. on whom Spider
Grandmother. like a fairy godmother. takes
pity and helps them fine! a wife and a place in
the community. These legends tell of sLiccess
through individual ahility and luck. They are
not unlike tales of upward social mohility that
have hecome popular legend" in technologically
more ad\'aIICed societies. Iike those of
Cinderella or Dick \\'hiltillglOiI Ithl' le~endar}
London scullery hoy who rose to hecome lore!mayor
of London).
CONSTANTS AND VARIANTS
OF ADOLESCENCE ACROSS
CULTURES
This section examine" the constants and \ariants
acro'>" cultures and hetv.. ecll the sc\es.
Tile data are cultural rather than individual in
1 
I
Constants and Variants of Adolescence Across Cultures 577
: that is. each "subject" is a culture in
sample. and the code for each variable of
culture-present/absent or point on an
ordinal scale-represents the best judgment
the coders. For the purpose of rendering
the data manageable. ordinal scales were converted
into two categories, and these variables
were analyzed statistically as above or below
the mean.
The following discussion highlights those
findings from the Adolescent Socialization
Project that, in this author's judgment, have
the greatest relevance to issues in the study of
contemporary adolescents. They are not necessarily
presented in the form they were in
the original cross-cultural report (Schlegel &
Barry, 199]).
Adolescents and Their Families
The Household-the Primary Locus of
Socialization
In Western cultures, that is, European and
European-derived cultures, a common family
form for many centuries has been the nuclearfamily
household, which consists of a married
couple and their children, plus perhaps other
unmarried or widowed adult kin, boarders, and
household workers. Household authority rests
with the central couple. The other common
form has been the stem-family household.
That contains an older couple and one of their
children (more often a son, but a daughter if
there is no male heir) plus that child's spouse
and children. Household workers and unmarried
kin may also belong to the household.
This household form occurred in many world
regions of peasant agriculture, including many
parts of Asia, where the household required
more than two working adults but limits on
land or other household resources kept the
household fairly small.
In underpopulated African pastoral and
farming regions, and in other places where
vast tracts of arable land or grasslands constituted
the landscape, the constraints were on
shortage of labor rather than shortage of land.
Extended-family household~ provided for
household expansion by keeping some married
children, most often sons. and their spouses
and children in the parental home. These societies
often promoted polygynous marriage.
which expanded the domestic female labor
force and provided more children for help in
farming or herding. Wealthy families in traditional
advanced societies like india and China
also formed extended-family households to
bring together the male kin. fathers. sons, and
brothers that formed the family corporation
and ran its enterprises.
These are broad generalizations, for there
are variations of these forms suited to local
needs and the rules or customs of inheritance
of property. Household structure and activities
provided the social milieu within which children
and adolescents were socialized and girls
and boys learned their varying socia] roles. In
the nuclear-family and extended-family households,
before a demographic shift away from
high fertility, the ratio of children to adults in
the household was equal or high. For example.
given four dependent children per woman, the
nuclear-family household had a ratio of two
children per one adult with whom they were
likely to have reciprocal obligations and emotional
ties. In the extended-family household.
the ratio of children to adults might even be
higher, particularly where there were polygynous
marriages. The stem-family household.
where polygyny was usually absent or uncommon,
contained two parents and two grandparents,
so the ratio was one-to-one. Since it often
also contained unmarried adult children of the
founding couple, uncles and aunts of the chi]dren,
the ratio could be even lower.
Thus, the social and emotional settings in
which children were socialized were structured
in different ways that depended on the
household form. It is not surprising that where
there were extended-family households, much
rearing of young children was done by older
siblings (Weisner. 1982) and cousins. and
older children had authority over and responsibility
for younger ones. Children as young
57~ C.-oss-Cultuml Isslle~ in tht' ~tlldy of Adolescent De\ eloPIlIt'1l1
as lour c()ulll be left Itl mimI the and
could c.\pect \(1 he punished for "erjuu" 111],,haps.
Sihlill~ care \\Cl'- ubu COl1lll1UIl in
fecLlnd hou'>l'llokb. In steI1llam!ly
hOlI"ehulds. grandpareIlts <t" \vcll i.t"
older "ihlill~s could do much oj the child care.
The ellect:-. Oil aduie:-'l'eflt" 01 hOll"ciluld
delllu~raphy shuw up ill the ~1"\l)Ciali(l1l between
hou'.eholcl form and the trail." of competitioll
and aggres"iull. COll1petitivenes" ill boy" i:-.
a:-..\ociated V\ illl the nuclear-ramil) huusehuld
((l.052) and a"suClated with
the stem-ramil~ hOU:-.e1lOld ( (1.0)),. a trelld).
COlllpetiti\'ellC''''' in girh i" wellhly as"uciatell
with the Iluclear-ramil) huu"ehold (0.072. ~I
trendl.
as:-'llciated \\ ilh the stem-family itull\ehllJd
(~(UB 1).111 aggres"j\'enes" i\ pu"itively
a:-,stlciated with the nuclear-family household
((),ll20). For both "exes. the stronge:-.t positive
associations of both compeLitivenl::"s and
aggressiveness are with competition with peers.
Ho\vever. family :-.ocial structure. as "etting
the stage for the family emotional structure.
does appear to be a factor. The rati() of adults
tu children affects the quantity and quality of
adult-child interactions. and this in turn affects
sibling interactions. Children learn in the family
what they will carryover into adolescence.
Relations with Fami(l' Alembers
Regardles:-. of household form. in most cultures
adolescents of both sexe" spent mo:-.t of
their waking hour" vvith adults of the same sex.
bo)':-. in somewhat fewer societies than girl."
because. in foraging or pastoral culture:-. ill
the "alllpk. the hoys were orten out with other
h()ys hunting or herding. Most producti()n in
:-.edentary societies. whether farming or craft
production. took place ill the h()me. and adolescent"
worked alongside adults tilere.
Almost all production was Sl:X typed. and
girls and boy" worked primarily \\ ith falllily
1l1l:lllbl:rs of the "lime "l:X. Ch lTal1. hoy:-- had the
111m! cO!1laci with fathcr:-- and uleler hl'llti1tT\.
the greatest "uhordinatJoll t() and thl' least illti­
111<1e) with rather". and thc I1Hl"t cunflict with
the Je\el
u1 conflict u\ endl \" a" I(lW. Ciirb had the 1110.'.1
cuntacl with muther" and older "isters ancl. like
huys. the tlreate\t :-.uburdinatiol1 \0 and the le:..tst
inlJl11ac), \\llh lather". Levcl uj connict \\'ith all
1.111 Wi.l.'. vcr) Im\. Alth()u~h there \\erc important
c;,\ceptlul1:-.. in ~e!lcral. Lllnily life V\a"
ljuile harmoniou:-. and "howed littk rehl:lliul1 by
dli{)le.,;cL'nt sons ur daughters. Thi" i", ill mar"'-ed
l'(llltn.l\l lu tht: \ten.:utypic (if uver:-.takd 1 portray,t1
01 adule.\cl:l1L'e ill modem "ocidie".
II -..huuld he relllcmherl:u thal auuk:-.cenh
ill must \)1' thc.se cultures lkpended heavily un
parent, amI other hill for help ill l1loving into
the adult stage of lile Open lkfiance. without
uthel re-.uurl'!.:''' III rail hacL (lIL \\uuld h~l\ c
heen \cil-clcstruCll\ c. Nl:\crtheles:--. parental
inll:re-..ts could conflict with lhu-.c of adolescent:,
and louth. particularlj V\ ilen the children
felt that v,/ere heing e\ploitl:d or denied
tileir kgitimatc Oue". and open l'()J1f1iCl or pa:-.sive
rl:sistance c()uld en:-.uc'.
Having said thm. it shuuld be empha.sized
that inmost cases. as far a" we can tell from
the ethnographic lilerature. the older generation
helped the younger one. We often hear thai chi1oren
pruvided social sccurit) in old age when
other institutional means \vere lacking. and it
is likely that that possihility factored into family
decisions about fertility. However. over the
course of a lifetime the resource now wa" probably
at least a:-. much down the generational
ladder as up. especiall) <1\ most people did
not live Illuch past their productive years. The
economic and social benefih uf children came
thruugh their lahor and marital connections as
much <.1:-. through later help tu aged parent-;.
/\ ~;lriking rcaturl' ;11 adole;,~::nt ~ifc in the"e
traditiunal :..;ocieties i.,-; the degrec to which adole"cents
were ernbeddcd in adult-ba\cd qrllClures
and activil ies. We \CC this \\ ith the family
and kin circk. and v,h.:n
\AT examine uther s(lcial rorm;.;.
Peers and Peer Gr()lIp~ 

Peer !:!roup:-, \",erc an iIllportant featurc ur ado­

le"ccnt lifl' in the culture." oj lhl' "aIllple: but 

Constants and Variants of Adolescence Across Cultures 579
from those places where boys hunted
or herded away from the home base or spent
in schools (like the Aztecs), peers often
did not have many hours of the day when they
were together. Unless adolescents were called
out by adults for group instruction or community
service. most peer contact occurred during
leisure time.
Peer relations were more important in
adolescence than in childhood in these traditional
cultures, as they are in modern ones.
Before adolescence. children rely heavily on
their families for their needs, and they turn
to family members for evaluation and validation.
Adolescents in al1 cultures are more selfsufficient.
In foraging children were
generally able to provide enough food to feed
themselves by the time they reached adolescence,
while European history and folklore tell
of adolescent boys sent out to make their own
way in the world.
In traditional cultures, as it is in modem
ones, adolescence was a time when evaluation
and validation by peers as well as adults
became a critical issue. This may be because
one's peers, the allies or competitors in adolescence,
become one's adult allies or competitors
in the near future, when economic and marital
opportunities and decisions come into play.
Contact with Peers
Locations where adolescents joined with
other adolescents ditTered somewhat between
the sexes. Girls and boys both had groups of
friends unless the local community was too
small to have more than one or two adolescents
at a time, like a small foraging band. In
these cases. adolescents waited until bands
congregated to meet up with their age-mates.
In most communities. girls' groups or pairs
of friends were just as likely to meet in the
company of adult women, their mothers and
neighbors. as apart from them. Boys' groups.
however. tended to congregate away from
adults or at the periphery of an adult male
group. This spatial placement is described.
or can be inferred from other descriptions. in
the ethnographic literature. The author has
also observed it in a tribal Philippine village.
an upper-class community in Malaysia. Hopi
villages (all described in Schlegel & Barry.
J991 ). a town in and one village each in
modem Germany and Italy.
The Italian case is instructive, because this
is a village in an advanced industrial culture.
Its inhabitants were formerly peasants. but in
the last half-century or more they have worked
in a nearby city or held paid jobs in the local
economy. The following scene describes the
village piazza as the present author observed it
on a summer evening in 2003. It depicts a pattern
of spatial placement by sex and age-stage
found over the world.
On one side ofthe piazza stood the bar-restaurant,
a gathering place forthe local inhabitants. As evening
fell, villagers began to drift in. After getting
drinks at the bar. often coffee or soda. they took
chairs outside. The men sat on one side of the
main door and the women and ad()lescent girls
sat on the other, although occasiona.lly a man
moved his chair over to the women's side to talk
to his, wife or mother. The male adolescents and
youths sat or stood by the wall of the buildings
opposite. In earlier times someone often would
bring out an accordion or guitar for impromptu
singing and dancing, but if there is music loday
it is likely to come from a transistor radio. as it
did on this occasion. As the evening wore on.
some girls and boys broke away from where they
were standing or sitting and met off to one side
of the piazza. A few left in pairs or small groups.
The adults began to head homeward. and by ten
0' clock the piazza was deserted.
The Structure and Character of
Peer Groups
Both girls and boys in the cultures of the sample
formed friendship dyads and peer groups,
but girh were more likely than boys to meet in
pairs. Peer groups of boys tended to be larger
than peer groups of girls of the same culture.
and they were more structured: that is. they
more often had an established hierarchy and a
name, more so in permanent than in nomadic or
5S(t Cro!o,~-Cllltliral hSlles in the Stud) orAdolescent Development
"emiperrnalll_'11I "eltiemenh. Boy" peer group"
were in general more important in "ocializing
their members ror adult community life than
were girl;.,' groups. Girl" participated more in
cOl11munity lire b) accompanying mothers and
other clost' kin. while boys were more likely
to paniL'ipatc as group" of pecr,,_ When hoys
werL' under adult male supervision. the men in
authority over them were (lot necessarily kin.
Peer-group activitie" abo differed between
the SCAes. Girl;., joined together primarily for
leisure-time acti\-itie". and the"e were usually
unstructured like simple game" or chatting
and storytelling. Boys more than gir!;., were
engaged in structured activities like competitive
game" with rulL'" (cf Schlegel & Barry.
19XLJ). A" will he discussed later in Lhis section
on peer groups. boys' groups provided
community "ervice in more cultures than girb'
groups did. although sometimes both girls' and
groups. together or separately. acted to
benefit the community.
The dynamics of peer-group relations differed
between girls and boys. Girls in most
cultures exhibited little competitiveness in
peer relations. although they were certainly
capable of it: on an II-point scale for this trait.
two cultures received a rating of 9, the highest
any culture received (20 received this rating
for hoys). Girls were frequently the minor
members of groups dominated numerically and
socially by adult women. which offered little
opportunity for them to compete for social
position. Boys. however. were often with other
boy" <tway from adult supervision during leisure
time. and here jockeying for position in
thc slatus hierarchy could receive full play.
Even when boys were under adult supervision.
they might compete for excellence in whatever
tash the adull\ had assigned them. in order to
win the approval of the men and the respect of
their age-mates.
However. the same hoys' groups that
v, ere internally competitive could also be
c()operalive--ti1e two modes of operating were
not l1lulllally exclusive. This is illustrated by
ob"ervations the author and her researchers
made in 19LJ-J.--19l)6 of a cla"s of 15 adoles_
cent boy apprentice" in frankfurt am Main.
Germany. They wen: members of an in-house
vocational training program of a major electronic"
firm. The following description i~
drawn from the author'" notes:
II did 1101 take miJny \ved.1., from the beginning of
the training program for tim. Lla....;.., to '>Orl themsehe"
into a hierarChy. which la'ited through the
tv.o-al1d~i.l-half year" they were uh,>erved.
The hoy who I.,cemed the 1110"t <h'>ertive at first
l~llded lip in the middle group. while the undisputed
leader who emerged wa'> the Who
clearly excclled over the other:,. The boys at
neither the top nor the bottom dil.,played a good
deal orgood natured competition ill their hUl1lornul.,
hut pointed hanter and controlled horseplay.
Toward the bottom were the one or 1\IV 0 k,,1., competent.
and the least competent wa,> frequently
the butt of jokes and pranb. Nevertheless. the
heller apprentice'> helped the other..... including
the boy at the bottom. and everyone was usually
invited when they got together oLlt....ide of their
work-traiIling hours. Social rank in this group
depended on competence on the joh. particularly
the hunds-on project~_
Participation in Community Life
Peer-Group Participation ;n the
Commullity
Adolescent peer groups often engage in activities
that benefit the entire community. One
universal or almost universal way is to provide
entertainment for adults through displays
of beauty and prowess in dancing and sports.
These displays serve several purposes. Beyond
providing entertainment, they allow adults
to look the adolescents over and judge them
as wOl1hy or unworthy of attention. In sl1l~1l
communities where future social success and
even marital prospects depend on hO\\1 they are
viewed adult!'. young people are cageI' to
he looked 011 favorably. And they all want to be
admired by their fellow adolescents. particularly
those of the opposite sex.
In some cultures ill the sample and elsewhere.
adolescent groups assumed responsibility for
Constants and Variant!!. of Adolescence Across Cultures 58]
certain rituals. community festivals. or other
community projects. Groups of adolescent
boys in some Japanese villages, and groups of
adolescents ofboth sexes in some tribal regions
of India, were responsible for keeping village
paths clean. Ritual involvement by teenage
girls and boys was common throughout Latin
America. where the adolescent groups took on
such duties as helping to clean the church or
organize religious processions. Some tasks
of community life. like taking charge of certain
aspects of public festivals, were done by.
groups of adolescent girls and boys, separately
or together. This practice continues in Siena,
Italy. today in the public dinners held as fundraisers
by the city's district associations (contrade),
where adolescents take part by helping
set up, clean up, and serve food.
Adolescent groups may also be given some
responsibility for enforcing community rules
of behavior. Reports of adolescent boys being
allowed to engage in what otherwise would be
considered antisocial acts-destroying property
of rule violators, beating those who have
aggressed against the community in some way,
or publicly mocking those persons whose behavior
threatens community moral standardscome
from such disparate places as Pygmy
villages in the Congo, American Chinatowns,
and European peasant villages, respectively. In
all these cases. groups of boys were permitted
to aggress against disruptive adults with community
approval.
Participation as Individuals
In traditional communities, adolescents were
everywhere, working with adults or sharing
responsibility. Adolescent girls and boys sold
in the marketplace, participated with their family
members in public rituals, and made themselves
available to adults for tasks beyond the
capabilities of younger children.
Adolescents also participated as individuals
in religious sodalities and civil organizations.
Hopi girls and boys began to take part in sodality
activities as children, taking on increasing
responsibility as adolescents. In contemporary
Germany. many adolescents from about age 15
or 16 join one or more of the clubs (Vereine).
from hunting or singing to chess or stamp collecting.
that are a prominent feature of German
town and village life.
The ethnographies used in the Adolescent
Socialization Project. as well as others of cultures
not in the sample. reveal that adolescents
interacted freely and often with adults in the
community. These adults were not just family
members or adults who had authority over
them in specific domains, like employers, religious
leaders. or instructors. but also adults
engaged in the same activities as the adolescents.
Adolescents may have in many respects
behaved differently, and were treated differently,
than either children or adults, but they
were not segregated.
Sexual Attitudes and Practices
Managing Adolescents' Sexual Behavior
Families and communities everywhere must
deal with adolescent children who are not
considered ready for marriage, but who are
highly motivated to engage in sexual relations.
Adolescent girls are also capable of producing
offspring. once they lose the protection of adolescent
subfecundity.
A matter of concern to a girl's family was
the possibility of her pregnancy outside of
marriage. Bastardy by itself was not a social
problem where children of unwed mothers
either stayed with the maternal grandparents
when the mother married, or accompanied
the mother into her new household. However,
even where such children were not stigmatized
in any way. they were still at a disadvantage.
This is because there was usually no obligation
for the biological father or his kin to provide
whatever material or social benefits they normally
provided to a man's children; if they did
provide any, what they gave often depended on
how they valued any particular child. This was
true for matrilineal societies. where children
belong to their mothers' kin group. as well as
those with other forms of kinship.
5X2 Cros.s-Cultural Issues in th(, Study of Adolescent Development
lVlanaging the "twng "exua] urge" of
und 'youtll. lIllsllpeniscd hy ,HJUits during
much (lltheir leisure time. concerned the
COI1HIlU[1it). If boys and youth had I1U class of
kmak" "exually <I\lli lable to them. such as
their female age-l11~lles. it was tempting to try to
nout thl' rule... and :-,educe unmarried girb or
the young V\i\cs or adult men. The sexualit)ur
young males in these cultures was a matter
of concern to the fathers of oaughters and
the older hushanos of young wive", (Schlegel.
Il)l) ll. The families of boy" were also intere"ted
parties. as angry fathers and husbands
could caLIse tmuble for them as well as for
their adulesC(:nts.
Tilt: Value Oil Virginity
\Vherher or not sexual intercourse. or heterosexual
activity or any kind. was permitted
depended on the way people valued virginity.
particularly virginity of girls. A cross-cullural
study \:\'itl1 the same sample by the present
author (Schlegel. IYY I) found that virginity
was valued to a statistically significant degree
when family property accompanied daughters
into marriage. as in dowry or indirect dowry.
It tended to he valued in far fewer cultures in
which goods or labor (i.e.. bride wealth and
bride service) were provided to the family of
the bride by the groom or hi:... family. Fewer
than half of the cultures in \\'hieh bride wealth
was given valued virginity. In other words.
families were more likely to pay to give a virgin
daughter than to acquire a virgin daughter-in-Jaw.
Virginity was also not likely to be
valued when no goods. beyond perhaps voluntary
wedding gins to the couple. were given at
marriage.
What thi" means i" that cultures. and ,"oclal
classes in class-stratified societies. in which
the bride'" family gave property generally
demanded virginity and attached a lI10ral value
t(l i1. This value was round ill most of the traditional
ci\ilizations of Europe. Asia. and the
pre-Columbian ciyilizatiol1s ufthe New World.
at lea'-.{ in lheir propertied classes where marnage
transactions that involved the transfer
of property 1'1'0111 thl.: bride"" rami ly were the
norm. SOl11e area" of Southeast Asia Wefe
all exception: Reu (1 y~~). \\Titing of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. attributes this to
the economic independence of women there.
and it i" likel~ that the L\\ailahility of sare and
sociall:- appron.:u ahortions was abo a factor.
Sexually Permissh'e Cu/lures
\\rhcre \'irginit~ Iwd Itttle or no \alue. adolescent
were allowed to engage in <.;exual
activity. which mayor may not have included
full sexual intercourse. The most permissive
cultures vvere thuse that had aoo!e:-,cent dormitories
where girls and hoys congregated in the
evening. after the uay's vvork anu the evening
mea! \vith the family were over. After singing
and games it was usual for couples to pair off
to sleep together. with or without intercourse.
Such dormitories were found in parts of tribal
SOlltheast Asia anu Inuia. The East African
Kikuyu also had adolescent dormitorie", where
couples could fondle and engage in interfemoral
intercourse. but here the girl:-, wore leather
aprons that prevented penetration.
The best descriptions of an adolescent dormitory,
somewhat romanticized. come from
Elwin\ (1947) ethnography of the Muria tribe
of Madhya Pradesh, India. and a later study of
the same people by Gell (1l)92). The sexual
freedom of adolescence was fondly remembered
by older Muria, Once married. however,
a couple was expected to be faithful. Adultery
was strongly uisappronxl. and according to
reports it wa:... rare.
We should not Lhink that these were auolescent
paradises. hov,!evcr. There is plenty of
evidence that girls and boys oftell felt rejected
when their favoreu partner preferred someone
elsc. A Muria girl in love with her preferred
partner. and the boy who loved her. were
despondent wilen her parents married her to
someone else.
Even where adolescents hau sexual freedmn.
boys did not nece"sarily have acce<.;~
to girls. Girls could require gifts nne! tesh of
de\otiol1 hefore they were willing to accept a
Constants and Variants of' Adolescence Across Cultures 583
Alternatives to heterosexual intercourse
and other societies were masturbation
homoerotic activity.
1I7__Il,Ori1tU' Activity
is little ethnographic reporting on
batlon among adolescents, as this is
private practice that is rarely observed by
ethnographers or discussed with them. There
is, however, information on adolescent homoerotic
activity in a number of cultures in the
'sample. From the evidence we have, it appears
that where adolescent homoerotic behavior
was tolerated or expected for one or both
sexes, it was considered to be either youthful
experimentation or an acceptable outlet for
sexual urges, without social consequences
like an out-of-wedlock pregnancy (Schlegel,
1995). There was no evidence that homoerotic
activity in adolescence led to adult homosexuality
as a preferred or frequent form of sexual
behavior.
Ritualized homoerotic behavior, involving
adolescent boys, has been reported for several
parts of Melanesia (Herdt, 1984). The fullest
ethnography that discusses this is Herdt's
(1981) book on the Sambia (a fictitious name).
Young males until marriage slept in the men's
house. which during the day was used as a
meeting place for adult men. Preadolescent
Sambia boys fellated adolescent boys, a
behavior the Sambia explained by their belief
that boys need to ingest semen in order to
grow. When the boys married, their wives had
not yet reached menarche. They, too, needed
semen. so both these immature wives and the
younger boys fellated the youngest husbands.
After the wife's menarche, or at least after a
child was born, fellatio was discontinued and
heterosexual intercourse was the normal sexual
practice for adults.
Sexual Abuse ofAdolescents
The somewhat developed bodies of adolescents
plus their lack of social power make
them potential victims of sexual predators.
Most of the ethnographic information for the
sample came from observations made in small
communities. villages or long-established
neighborhoods in traditional towns and cities.
Predatory acts here would be difficult to
accomplish and would be seriously punished
by family. kin. and community members.
However, there is information on sexual abuse
for one of the societies, ancient Rome during
the early Empire.
The third century was close to the ti me span
pinpointed for the sample (A.D. lIO), when
the morals and customs of the Romans were
adapted by Christian society and colored the
writings of the first Church Fathers. Clement
of Alexandria, not of Rome but socialized to
upper-class Roman culture, warned Christians
against frequenting brothels, for the girls or
boys they engaged might be sons or daughters
they had abandoned as unwanted infants
(Boswell, 1988). Other evidence of the sexual
use of adolescent slaves or prostitutes is plentiful
for Ancient Greece and Rome. It is likely
that similar information could be found for any
of the large dties of pre-industrial Europe or
Asia, where abandonment of unwanted children,
slavery, or destitution of the underclass
provided a pool of exploitable adolescents.
One domain in which sexual abuse is known
from much anecdotal evidence to occur, but
for which systematically collected data are
very scanty, is abuse within the family, or more
often the circle of kin. Relatives such as uncles
and older cousins have opportunities to abuse
young adolescents sexually in cultures that
promote family cohesiveness, where relatives
come into frequent contact and children are
expected to respect older kin and obey them
without question. Many of these cultures like
those of India and the Middle East, value virginity,
the loss of which brings shame on the
family (SchlegeL 1991). Family members
blame the abused girls themselves, and their
mothers for not adequately supervising them.
rather than risk tearing the social fabric of the
larger kin group. While such abuse is no doubt
rare. there is enough anecdotal information
to indicate that it can happen where there are
opportunities for such abuse. It is the deviant
"ide olcioc..c kill ltHIIIt'l'tiun:-, .iI1d the il1\ uh e­
11li..:n1 ui ad(lie:-,cl'J1h \" jtb adult kin.
Adoie~t:ent !\Iishehavior
to the
culture!] "«.tIlJard.., oj the U)1l1ll1unit). what i...,
dL'linl\LII:Jll lor Olle c..llciet) ur "cl'tor may nul be
lor another. We han' <tlrctld) c..cel1 thaI adule,cen!';
may hI: calice! UpUJ1tll do the c..ucwl "dirt)
work" that j" helo\-l. the di~nit:\ uf udullc.. tu duo
or !h,tl would rec..ult ill majur rupture" ul ,>ucial
harmuny il pcrrurmed hy aciu/L", In '.uch Ci.!'.t\,
hoys' peer 2!)"()up" may he encouraged to PUIlish
thu."e \vlHl pOSl' ."0111(' sort of threat to the
cummunit), (I'. ill the American ChillatO\\I1.,> or
pY~I11Y \ illage\ (J Ire~IiJy ment idlled, I:"'or purpmes
of tlte LTos,,-cLiIWral '.tudy, antisocial
behavior \va" de1ined a:-- expected misheha\iur.
not the acti()ns ()f deviants \'\'ho pruhably
exI'.t in every suciety. 11 included '.lIch diverse
activities a" hostile :--peech. righting or crime:-.
against per:-.om. theft. di:-.approved sexual
behavior. and di:-.approved drullkellnes,,, or
misllse of other
[nformation on tili'. subject was rather
spar:-.c, from only 54 cultures for boys and 2g
for girls, Jt wa" impossible to general ize about
the girl<;. for expected antisocial hehJvior
was pre"ent in only six cultures. For boys. it
was coded a:-. pre'.ent in 24 and absent in 30.
We cannot m;sume that absence or reponing
mean" absence of the feature. but it i.,> probable
that in detailed ethnographies. expected anti,,>ocial
hehavior would have heen mentioned if it
were a prominent feature of the culture. In our
best judgment. boy'.' adolescent misbehavior
\\'as limited and occasional ill most societies.
(lirl" \\'('1'1.' even Ie,>", likely to C:.lU"C prohlems
for the cOllll11l1llity. The most UJll1lllun forl1l:-.
of boys' rnishdwvior ",'Cre theft (Iline) and
physical violence (seven).
Theft i." ..,jgnif'i(.'anlly (ls.'.()ciated 'v\ ith the
oppol"lullit) to OWIl property, ~llch as d()me~ticated
<lllill1ub. but \v'ork i\ not emphasized a~
an area or ",kill. III other \\on1\. it ."t.:'l'Il1S that
theft resulted from the de'.ire for withoul
:l mean:-­ which Ihe indi\idul.l1 could
galli Lill:Jll b) ellun ()tilL'!' I!WI; ti1eiL Till'll or
ullimai:-. j.., l'IHJemic in pac..[ural c..(lCldie..., fur
. and one 'v\ a) of "taning :l tlerd j"
\0 ... teal fr,.Jlll .' (lUI I 01
Violence \\ ~h J\ll):--\ lihel) tu occlIr whel\.' peer
L'ulllpelitioll \\ a.., high and L'(H.ll1LT<.ttiol1 v.. as
Im\ Buy> ~dc..u roll(i\vcd till' l",alllpk u[' adull'>.
tur aduJ,:..;celll viuience i~ 1\ a",,(lCl;'lled
\\ ith frequenl dc\ ianel" h) men.
Ti1L'h aile! \ioiencc do IlPt c..hm~ an) rL'latiull
to hostile OJ" ...1!"a 111eli relati(;lh 'v\ !thill thl' f
UI' with adult" ill general. Tlh:Y dPpL~lr to 1l~I\'e
rc\ulted frU11l prc\Clll situali,)n" lhal <.,till1ulall'd
irnpubiw bella\iur. :he failurl' ur "ucialiJ:alioll
in leachi!lg hll\\ [0 cOlllroj illlpul'>es. alld.
where adult dn ianlT wa~ high. the cxample or
gn)\vn men.
B()y,,' L.lnti.'.ocial hella\;;)r in general i... positively
related ttl a low oC COI\lLlCt that
hu) ~ had Wllh ~ldllli men generally and adult
Illen outside the home, that j". men who were
not member,,> 01 their hmhelHlld, It i:-; also
positi\,ely relulcd to a laek uf emphasis on
producti\c skills. This meam that in culture"
thai involved boys with adult men and taught
them producti\'e skills, teaching that \.;,'tIS usually
done hy grown men. boys were not likely
tu be expected to misheha\e. Most girb in the
sample so:.:icties had close iJnd frequent. oftell
almost continuous. contact with adult women.
and they \velT usually "'-cpt hu:..;y learning and
doing productive wurk.
Some ImIJlicati()n~ for Contemporary
Adolescence
Our examination of a !lumber of feature.,>
of adolescence that diller across cultures or
hCi\\!cen thl' ~cxe... SLlggc,>h :-.c\cral illlplil"ations
for adolL'''cenee ill modern and Hloderni/ing
culture",
illl'o/vcl1le11l with Adults
Adulc"l'<.:'llt... III 111udern culture:, generally
spend les... li me wilh adult'., alld "dulh of the
same "ex, IhiJn iJd()iesl"enb ill traditional l'ul~
lUres, "jllel' tllL'\ arc III \ch(J()l for 1l1llL'h of the
Constants and Variants of Adolescence Across Culture.... 585
day, and adult family members and neighbors
often work away from home. The contrast
of adolescents in the sample cultures with
American adolescents is particularly striking.
In the United States, extreme age segregation
limits contacts across generations in civic
or leisure-time activities. In many sectors of
American society, adolescents are remarkably
uninvolved with adults other than immed~ate
family members and authority figures like
teachers, coaches, youth leaders, and the like.
Yet, it would be wrong to assume that adults
other than parents play no meaningful roles in
the lives of American adolescents. It would be
easy to stereotype American teenagers as A
Tribe Apart the title of a recent book (Hersch,
1998). As the work of Greenberger, Chen, and
Beam, (1998) on VIPs (very important persons)
shows, adolescents often have one or two
adults other than parents to whom they turn for
counsel. Hamilton and Darling (1998), among
others, have also written about the importance
of adult mentors in the lives of adolescents.
Nevertheless, for many adolescents, the workplace
and civil society provide few opportunities
for adolescents to develop long-term close
relationships with unrelated adults; and while
young people may love grandparents and other
kin, these are often not readily available.
In the European nations where the author
has done research, Italy and Germany, adolescents
are much more involved with adults than
American teenagers are, even though European
adolescents attend school and spend considerable
leisure time with peers. Kin and neighborhood
networks in these countries provide
more scope for adolescent-adult interaction.
and institutions exist that promote such interaction.
This is pronounced in Germany and
other German-speaking countries and regions,
which have extensive apprenticeship programs
for adolescents. German ado1escents are also
involved with adults in social clubs and civic
organizations, the Vereine.
Socialization for adulthood begins early
when adolescents interact often and freely
with adults. It eases the transition to adUlthood,
as adolescents have many opportunities to
observe aduJt behavior and select realistic role
models from those they admire. Such interaction
also sets the stage for possible friendships
between the generations. These may be
especially valuable as escape valves when
pressures within the family and with peers
mount. and adolescents can turn to adults,
rather than other adolescents, for solace and
advice. Institutions that involve adolescents
with adults also provide settings for socialization
that could be particularly important for the
children of dysfunctional families.
Work
Most adolescents in traditional societies, where
production generally took place in the home or
the small job shop. were at work for much of
their time. Schooling, where it existed, took up
only part of the day. Among traditional elites,
whose children did not do productive labor.
the boys learned the skills they would need to
be successful managers of family enterprises.
soldiers, diplomats, or whatever elite men did,
and girls learned the practical and social skills
they would need as wives of these men.
Such practical learning is found in apprenticeship
programs in modern societies. While
informal apprenticeships are widespread
throughout the world, Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland have established apprenticeship
systems that employ the majority of their adolescent
boys and girls aged 16 and older. These
adolescents, who are either in blue-collar or
white-collar apprenticeships, typically attend
vocational school (with some academic subjects)
for part of the time and work the rest of
the time at their place of employment where
they receive apprentice wages. These systems
bring together employers, unions. and state
educational bureaucracies in a relationship that
is not always harmonious, but it does produce
an institution that succeeds in preparing young
people for future vocations.
Apprenticeship programs modeled after the
German system have been adapted to American
high-school settings in a few places (SchlegeL
5X(, Cross-Cultural bsucs in thl' Study of Adulescent Dcvclopnwnt
1l)l)61. Thl.') oile) auolesu:nl'-. the opportunil)
III enter .Jobs that are not dead-end but rather are
the fir:-.! rung OIl a \'oeational career ladder. A
hroader application of similar program.s would
hI;' panicularJ) helpful for adolescents whll
lack the ahility or the moti\ation to continue
Oil tu higher education. and it v..'ould give them
all IllcellU vc to lini"h high "chool alld get their
vocationalccnificate.
Sexual Behavior
Sexual activity among adolescents to the point
ur "cxmd intercourse nov,' is more common.
and III many quarters more tolerated. than it
wa:-. fifty year:-. ago. The decline in the value on
virginity corresponds in tillle with increa"ed
opportunitie" of young people to be independent
of family resources. and the correspondillg
decline of adult authority over them. There
ha:-. been a trickle-down effect from the sexual
freedom of youth to the sexual freedom or
adolescents. particularly as means of escapillg
adult supervision have increased through
access to cars and now the Internet. and adults
thcmseh e:-. are more permissive toward sexual
behavior olltside of marriage.
Sexual permissiveness is not without consequences.
The most obvious are the risks of
pregnancy and contracting a sexually transmitted
disease: another is the danger of sexual
coercion by other adolescents. There are
emol ional risk-.. as well. As we saw in the case
of the Muria. sexual intimacy can intensify
emotional attachment for (lne or both participants.
and the almust inevitable break-up can
be \cry di"turbing to adolescents unprepared
to cope with "uch an emotional jolt
Judging from the limited amount of available
information. homoerotic behavior among
adolescents is not uncommon in traditional
cultures. nor i:-. it lIsually stigmatized. There is
110 c\idcncc that :-.uch ach in adolescence lead
to a preference for homosexuality or even to
an interest in it unle:-.s the individual already
ha" that preference. For lllallY adolescents with
hctero:-.exual preference. homoerotic acb may
be a k.ind of way"latiol1 between the "exua]
play Dr children and fuli adult heterosl.:xuality.
Experimentation witb a :-.a!11i.>sex friend
can be u \\cay nf socializing yuung people for
:-.exual behavior with a partner of the opposite
sex. withuut the "alne emotional load thaI a
heterosexual relatiunship may carry fur one
or botiJ participant:-.. This wuuld only be true
of the kind of homoerotic activities reponed
for cultures or the sample: that j:-.. they occur
among adolescent friends. v,:i1ere lhe dangers
of sexual predatiun and the risk of sexually
transmitted disease are minimal. not between
adolescents and adults.
Alltisocial Behal'ior
The two most common form.'" oj misbehavior
in the sample cultures are theft and fighting.
Theft is associated with the difficulty or
impossibility of obtaining desired objects.
Juvenile theft in modern "ocieties is generally
dealt with through attempts at prevention. and
punishnlcnt. It i:-. probably impossible to curtail
desire. as television and advertising keep
desirable material objects constantly in view.
and one mark of high status in the group is
ownership or these objects. But a better way
to prevent theft, by reducing the motive, would
be to increase the means by which adolescents
who otherwbe would not have acces~ to these
objects could attain them in a legitimate manner.
through earnings of some kind. Unlike
adolescents in some nations. American teenagers
who are not bound for college have little
access to programs that vocationally train and
gainfully employ them and prepare them for
adult vocation",
Violence was found where peer competition
was high and cooperation 'iii as luw. Some competition
for status. and for attractivenes:-. to the
opposite sex. is prohably inherent in adolescent
social relationships. However. young people
are less likely to become angry and fight
when they are working together on a project
and depending on one another for success in
completing it. Activities that place less emphasis
on competition and more on cooperation.
particularly cooperation with tangible results
that bring recognition and reward to the whole
cooperating group. would be a place to start.
It would be very difficult to reduce adolescent
misbehavior when adults frequently
commit antisocial acts, for these variables
are significantly correlated. Attempts to reduce
youth delinquency alone are less likely to be
effective than attempts that also address adult
delinquency. Adolescent delinquency may be
more than simply an epiphenomenon of adult
delinquency; it may have causes of its own,
but it exists within an environment of adult
delinquency, as the cross-cultural study finds.
DISCUSSION
The cross-cultural method is correlational,
not experimental, and it has the strengths
and weaknesses of all correlational methods.
Cross-cultural studies are most valuable when
they are one of a set of studies that use different
methods to address a topic (i.e., triangulation),
but this can be said of any kind of study
in the social sciences. The findings of crosscultural
studies of adolescence, instructive by
themselves, also point to directions that other
studies can take using more restricted samples,
such as a sample from a single culture.
Some of the findings presented here have
been il1ustrated with single-case studies, based
on the field research of the author and others.
Those that are relevant to research on modern
adolescents received particular attention.
Overall, cross-cultural data indicate that
social adolescence is a panhuman phenomenon.
The few ambiguous cases seem to be
anomalies that could be explained by specific
local conditions. Projecting into the past, it
seems likely that our late-Pleistocene ancestors,
and even earlier ones, recognized a social
adolescence. This possibility is reinforced by
studies of a developmental stage in the behavior
of higher primates that is analogous to
human social adolescence (Walters, 1987),
We have also seen that social adolescence
is generally coterminus with biological adolescence,
but its beginning and ending can vary
according to social conditions. Since biological
Discussion 587
adolescence is broadly defined as the period
during which the human reproductive system
becomes active and matures. it is not surplising
that social adolescence in most cases begins with
some physical signs of puberty and ends
with mamage, when the reproductive careers of
most people become established. In cultures
or social sectors where marriage is delayed for
one or both sexes, a second pre-adult period
intervenes between adolescence and full social
adulthood. This we have termed youth.
The presence of adolescence as a social
stage has often been explained as a needed
time for young people to learn adult skills and
roles. This explanation is called into question
when we learn that in many traditional
societies, by pubel1y both sexes had acquired
the survival skills they needed. Furthermore,
it was common worldwide for adult married
couples to live with the groom's or the bride's
parents, permanently (until these parents died)
or up to the time they were able to set up their
own household. Presumably, a very young
couple just past puberty would be as capable
of survival as an older couple, for both would
be embedded in the social networks that promote
survival. So there is more to adolescence
than just a time for extended learning of survival
skills.
As we have seen, this social stage has a
biological basis. For girls, menarche. or other
physical signs of puberty, signal the readiness
to move out of childhood: for boys, secondary
sex characteristics also indicate that the boy
has reached sexual maturity and is no longer a
child. For humans as for higher primates, eggs
and sperm do not by themselves lead to full
adult reproductive behavior (which in humans
is generally preceded by the formation of some
kind of pair bond). At the very minimum,
female bodies have to develop sufficiently to
caITY a pregnancy, and male bodies must be
sufficiently large and developed to indicate
that they can fulfill the requirements of manhood.
Biological adolescence is the time when
both sexes make this transi'ion. Social adolescence
generally tracks biological adolescence.
5KK Cross-Cultural Issues in tht' Study of Adolescent De\ dopmellt
with some \ ariations across culture" as to tht
heginning and ending of this social stage.
The hiology of rerroductive development
was rrohahly no different for Pleistocene HOll1o
s(/pieJls than it i" for LIS today. although the timmm
have been. 'The rerroductive maturIl)
of' chiIdren of hoth "t>XC\ comes early in modern
well-J1uurished societies. with diets that promote
the higher kveh of fat that arc associated
with puhert). comparison. reproductive
maturitv OCCLlr', late in many foraging societies
of rece;ll times. This can be accounted for hy
their low-fat and low-sugar diet-wild vegetal
foods and the lean meat that comes from wild
~ame. It is likely that puherty came much later
;0 our Pleistocene :.tllce.'>lOrs. and social adolescence
may have been rather short. especially for
A longer period of social adolescence may
he a cultural artifact. hrought on hy the domestication
of calorie-rich plant and animal foods
that promoted earlier puberty without a corresponding
early entrance into adulthood.
A stage of social adulescence for girl... is a
cultural feature. hut it may be based in part on
the recognition that early pregnancies can he
difficult and dangerous. The dangers of pregnancies
may he greater where biological ado-)
lescence comes early. before the female body
has fully developed. Jf menarche is late. and
full fecundity is not achieved hefore the late
teens. pregnancy at age I8 or 19 is pmbahly
safe if the pregnant mother receives adequate
nutrition. In such cases. social adolescence
could be short without endangering the woman's
health or that of her child.
Adolescent hoys. whose grmvth spurt follows
spermarche. do not look like men and
are not ready to participate fully in adult
male activities. As we have seen. men usually
exclude adolescent hoys from their leisure-time
f'TOUPS or allow their presence only at the mar~in"
of the men's group. By the very late teens.
~hough. most hoys are ready to join the society
of adult men. unless cultural factors create an
intervening youth .stage.
Human evolution and hehavior are dependent
nil neither nature nor nurture alone. but
rather 011 the complex inlcrplay and mutua]
infl L1ence of hiological and cultural factor".
An underqanding of adole\cenl heha\ior. and
ho,"" social adolescence come" to he a stage
in the human life cycle. reLJuires a hiocultural
approach.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The data f()1' this charter cume from a sample
of preindustrial culture". Many of these cultures
still exist. hut they do so in a form that would
be unrecognizable to the residents of the communities
in which the ethnographic observations
\-\icre made. The people of these cultures
are all moving into the indusLrial world. ror hetter
or for worse. if they have not already done
so. Pygmy foragers of the Congo have become
sedentary farmers. The Yanomi.Lmi of tropical
South America art' connected to the Internet
and fi!.!ht for indigenolls rights. Grandchildren
of Ut;ar Pradesh villagers go to New Delhi
for jobs or education. and .'>ome emigrate to
England or the United States. Kazak'-., former
pa:roralists, are very much in the news as the
nation ()f Kazakhstan enters the world market
with its oil and gas reserves. In stretches
of the Sudan. some adolescents who in earl ier
times would have. at worst. tried to steal a cow
are now' kiJlin~ innocent victims: "Child" soldiers
are often teenagers capablc of wielding a
loaded AK-47 rine that weighs 9.5 pounds.
Today's teenagers are no longer i:-.olat.ed
from modern political and economic forces;
they are participants in the global reach of contemporary
adolescent culture (Schlegel. 1999:
"ce also Amit-TaJai & Wulff. I':-)95). Their
lives have changed irrevocably. and the future
of their culture" depends on how they are prepared
to meet these changes.
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~WILEY
HANDBOOK OF
ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY
THIRD EDITION
Volume 2: Contextual Influences on Adolescent
Development
RICHARD M. LERNER 

LAURENCE STEINBERG 

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.