Editing Adolescence (section)

===Transitions into adulthood===
{{further|Leaving the nest}}
[[File:Da Nang, Vietnam. A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing. - NARA - 532432 (restored).jpg|thumbnail|160px|A young U.S. Marine in the [[Vietnam War]], 1965]]
A broad way of defining adolescence is the transition from child-to-adulthood. According to Hogan & Astone (1986), this transition can include markers such as leaving school, starting a full-time job, leaving the home of origin, getting married, and becoming a parent for the first time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shanahan |first1=Michael J. |title=Pathways to Adulthood in Changing Societies: Variability and Mechanisms in Life Course Perspective |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |date=August 2000 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=667–692 |id={{Gale|A67051625}} |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.667 |jstor=223461 }}</ref> However, the time frame of this transition varies drastically by culture. In some countries, such as the United States, adolescence can last nearly a decade, but in others, the transition—often in the form of a ceremony—can last for only a few days.<ref>Steinberg, L. (2011). "Adolescence", 9th ed. 101. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.</ref>

Some examples of social and religious transition ceremonies that can be found in the U.S., as well as in other cultures around the world, are [[Confirmation]], [[Bar and Bat Mitzvah]]s, [[Quinceañera]]s, [[Sweet sixteen (birthday)|sweet sixteens]], [[cotillion]]s, and [[débutante]] balls. In other countries, initiation ceremonies play an important role, marking the transition into adulthood or the entrance into adolescence. This transition may be accompanied by obvious physical changes, which can vary from a change in clothing to tattoos and scarification.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Furthermore, transitions into adulthood may also vary by gender, and specific rituals may be more common for males or for females. This illuminates the extent to which adolescence is, at least in part, a social construction; it takes shape differently depending on the cultural context, and may be enforced more by cultural practices or transitions than by universal chemical or biological physical changes.