Talk:Adult

message: I'm no expert, but this section seems very POV to me, accusing adults of adultism and holding a double standard, as well as accusing them of immature behavior. 76.182.114.112 21:01, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: accusing adults of adultism and holding a double standard, as well as accusing them of immature behavior. Well, that is not Wikipedianly-POVed/NPOVed, that is simply a truthful statement. KSM-2501ZX, IP address:= 200.155.188.3 17:27, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

text: I agree--biological and legal adulthood were the same in many societies, but are virtually unrelated in many modern societies. I added a bit about that, but it could use more. Adam Newton 03:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I created a section for it, but it could still use some expanding.  KPalicz 16:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

text: As this comment has been here almost two months and no one has explained it, I'm removing it from the article. Adam Newton 03:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Social Status of Adulthood

message: The legal age section contains the following:
15: Iran (21) 
16: Scotland (21) 
17: Indonesia (20)
18: South Africa (18) 
Which one is the age - the number in parenthesis or the number before the colon? Either way, what's the other number? Tompagenet 13:57, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree--biological and legal adulthood were the same in many societies, but are virtually unrelated in many modern societies. I added a bit about that, but it could use more. Adam Newton 03:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I created a section for it, but it could still use some expanding.  KPalicz 16:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

text: As this comment has been here almost two months and no one has explained it, I'm removing it from the article. Adam Newton 03:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Which number?

message: I added a couple of sources for some of this, but this article still needs sources. I'll try to work on adding more, but anyone else is free to beat me to it! Adam Newton 03:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sources 

message: Can we get more pictures? Can we have a photo of a middle aged and old people? The child article has tons of pictures.  Why can't this article have some pictures? We need to show some diversity. Is it that hard for people to go out to take some pictures.  It's not that hard. (209.177.21.6 - Talk)
What's stopping you then?  --Brideshead 21:51, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Let's get pictures for this article!!! 

message: I've been tracking edits of a potential vandalism account of which has edited this page, and I think I've confused myself a little on the reverting. I can't revert any more as per 3RR (I never like to go beyond 2), so can somebody please repair or revert my edits to remove the vandalism? Many thanks /Marbles 18:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fix UK limits, vandalism, 3RR 

message: This is fairly vague, but if I understand its meaning correctly, a good portion of the human population - and nearly its entire population preceding the modern era - never truly reaches adulthood. I've been given the impression that prior to the spread of western individualism, personal identity was inseparable from the identity and welfare of the family, past and future. I may be wrong though. Closest thing I can think of to cite is Origins of English Individualism by Alan Macfarlane.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.207.141.223 (talk) 05:53, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  to experience the world from a first-person standpoint instead of through the parents. 

message: This article could use some actual science. It seems to go towards the popular conception of adulthood and then ignores neurological and psychological conceptions of adulthood. In the neurological sense adulthood occurs in bursts throughout the teenage years and the early 20s. Why not mention it? YVNP (talk) 11:20, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. 24.255.28.107 (talk) 08:33, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  unsourced section and fix up 

message: First of all, you are not still growing or just finished growing at the age of 25!! Hello!!!
Secondly, the characteristics that define an adult in the "graph" down below is absurd. I've seen some very mature kids and teens that meet these criteria very well and some unstable adults (whether by a fault of their own or not) living in this world.
Punkymonkey987 (talk) 21:47, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is a dumb article.... 

message: Where is the reference for the claim that "the age of consent for sexual relations in the Vatican is 12"?
Joo (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 10:36, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Age of Consent in the Vatican 

message: What about skeletal maturity? The Wikipedia page on bones states that longitudinal growth stops around age 18-25. So there is when we are literally "all grown-up". Aldo L (talk) 01:46, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Skeletal adulthood 

message: Why is adolescence referred to as a "social construct" that was "created"? Isn't it a culturally, psychologically and biologically acknowledged stage in a person's life? On the Wiki page for adolescence, it is not defined as a social construct. I think there is some internal inconsistency here, with someone writing in a deliberate point of view because they have it out for teenagers. 23:30, 12 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It is defined as a social construct in the Adolescence article, though not directly called one. See the Adolescence#History section, which can certainly be expanded. Just the fact that there is inconsistency in how to define adolescence (as the lead of the Adolescence article shows) tells us that it is a social construct. It overlaps with the definition of preadolescence, and the complications come from whether or not to mark adolescence as the start of puberty or the start of the teenage stage. Puberty and the teenage stage used to occur at about the same time, but they typically do not any longer. And both aspects can be considered "the start of adolescence." And let's not forget that the age of majority (age that one is legally considered an adult) varies. So, yes, taking all that into account, adolescence is definitely socially-constructed. It has nothing to do with "having it out for teenagers." Ask yourself, "Do people generally assign 'adolescence' to non-human animals and other such living beings?" If the answer is no, which is the correct answer, then that should tell you "definite social construct." No matter how culturally, psychologically and biologically recognized. Biologically, people are either children or adults, unless (as the article notes) one's definition of "adult" is a person who is finished with puberty. But then again, people are usually finished with puberty before or by the time they turn 16. Flyer22 (talk) 15:28, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Social Construct" 

message: I can't seem to find many references beyond this article that use "biological adult" as a key distinction - would I be stepping on anyone's toes if I reworked that section to focus less on terminology and more on the different ways societies have defined adulthood based on biological features? --Lunar Jesters (talk) 22:04, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not completely sure what you mean; do you mean that the term biological adult is used significantly less than the term legal adult? If so, I'm sure that the section headings are titled by those names not as indicators that the sources use those exact terms, but rather because there is nothing better to title those sections. Titling the first one Biological status of adulthood, for example, is long-winded, as is Legal status of adulthood. By contrast, Biological adulthood and Legal adulthood are concise. As for reworking that section, as you can see, that section (and the entire article) needs reworking. I don't mind you reworking it, but I would rather something stay there in that section about the distinction (including pubertal time frames/aspects), considering that legal adulthood is a social construct that some societies do not follow. Flyer22 (talk) 22:26, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

text: As you can see above, I agree that the article is terrible. And despite currently being billed as the editor who has made the most edits to it, I didn't add most of the material in this article; the significant majority of my edits to it have been tweaks or reverts of vandalism. Flyer22 (talk) 22:12, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: As for puberty, I have seen enough dictionaries, encyclopedias and some very good scholarly texts define a child as "between birth and puberty"; so there are definitely WP:Reliable sources that imply or outright state something along the lines of "once a child hits puberty, they are no longer a child in the biological sense" or "no longer a complete biological child." As for the legal aspect, that obviously falls under the social aspect. But you are correct that there are other social aspects, which the lead briefly addresses. Flyer22 (talk) 22:22, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Biological adult? 

message: JMccoy13, I reverted you here because you engaged in WP:Synthesis (read that policy) and you added inaccurate information. You added, "By definition, puberty ends when sexual maturity has been attained, contrary to the popular misconception that puberty ends when vertical growth ceases. The average age of reaching sexual maturity and therefore the end of puberty is 13 in humans." Um, no. Sources do not state that puberty ends as soon as it begins, which is essentially what your text is stating since you keep trying to define puberty as sexual maturity, and since it's still the case that many boys don't begin puberty until age 11 or 12. The process does not usually does not take one or two years. I reverted you here because your text was still problematic. It was based on this everydayhealth.com source that is not WP:MEDRS-compliant, this WebMD source that is specifically about earlier puberty, and this 1985 "Spermarche--the age of onset of sperm emission" source. In your edit summary, you stated, "Puberty does not end at the age of 16 in the vast majority of cases - I fixed this error with proper sources." I see no reliable sources to support you on that statement. In fact, going by this sourced addition I made, I see sources stating just the opposite. You also added that "boys typically reach sexual maturity on average at the age of 13" and sourced it to the "Spermarche--the age of onset of sperm emission" source. Your text appears to be implying that boys complete puberty at age 13. That is not what sources state. 
Yes, sources vary on when puberty begins and ends for boys and girls, but there is still a typical age range given in sources. Yes, more sources have started to cite age 9 for girls regarding the onset of puberty, but age 10 is still the standard because sources base the first sign of puberty for girls on thelarche (breast development), and thelarche is still most commonly defined as beginning at age 10. Like this 2016 "Women’s Gynecologic Health" source, from Jones & Bartlett Learning, page 22, that I used in the article, states, "The changes that occur during puberty usually happen in an ordered sequence, beginning with thelarche (breast development) at around age 10 or 11, followed by adrenarche (growth of pubic hair due to androgen stimulation), peak height velocity, and finally menarche (the onset of menses), which usually occurs around age 12 or 13." So stop adding WP:Synthesis and poor sourcing. If I need to bring others, such as WP:Med, in on this matter, I will. But I am more inclined to report you. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 22:33, 20 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puberty material 

message: 24.165.205.42 (talk) 23:24, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Empty request. Clearing. OhNoitsJamie Talk 23:27, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit requesting on 16 June 2019 

message: I heard that this article almost exclusively focuses on humans and no other organism. (At least on the biological adulthood part) There’s should an other organisms part tho. 75.137.4.149 (talk) 01:27, 30 October 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. There should be more information about other organisms. It should be titled Human Adult if it is just talking about humans.  NDLitster (talk) 20:57, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Human-centric? 

message: I deleted "historically 21" for lack of any citation to support the claim that adulthood has been historically 21.
Probably the editor can find some citation to support that claim for USA relative to recent history, but what about in 1776? The colonial era?  The Mayans? Pre-colonial Africa? China? What about world history? Middle Ages? Ancient Civilizations?  Has modern society artificially prolonged childhood? AltheaCase (talk) 23:57, 21 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:   Source needed for "historically 21"