ADOLESCENCETHE ACCELERATED LIFE COURSE AND
ADOLESCENCEA conception of adolescence as bounded by mark-
ers implies a normative rate of movement through
roles that indicate childhood, adolescence, and
adulthood. Accordingly, influential accounts of
youth view adolescence as a transitory period,
marking normatively paced movement from child-
like to adult roles (e.g., Linton 1942). The indi-
vidual is construed as more or less adultlike de-
pending on the acquisition of symbols, the provision
of opportunities, and demands for responsibility
that indicate adulthood. With respect to the sec-
ond decade of life, behavioral scientists recognize
three forms of an accelerated life course, reflect-
ing the nonnormatively rapid (1) transition into
adolescence, (2) movement through adolescence,
and (3) transition into adulthood. These manifes-
tations of the accelerated life course are frequently
linked to stressors operating on the parents and
the young person.
Precocious youth represent an early form of
accelerated life course in American history. Since
at least the mid-eighteenth century, some young
people have been portrayed as astonishingly adult-
like in their intellectual, moral, physical, and social
capacities. Early American history is replete with
admiration for youth who grew up in log cabins
only to rise to high levels of prominence while still
young, a rise often linked to exceptional talents
exhibited in childhood. Yet precocity was also
viewed as an inconvenience. Thus, the father of an
eleven-year-old graduate from Yale at the end of
the eighteenth century lamented that his son was
‘‘in no way equipped to do much of anything’’
(Graff 1995, p. 47). Instances such as these became
rare as the social institutions of youth became age-
graded, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.
In contemporary times, an accelerated life
course may reflect an early transition to adoles-
cence. For example, Belsky and his colleagues
(1991) have proposed a sociobiological model of
early menarche and sexual activity. According to
this model, high levels of stress during childhood—
reflecting marital discord, inconsistent and harsh
parenting, and inadequate financial resources—
lead to aggression and depression in late child-
hood, which in turn foster early puberty and sexu-
al activity. In contrast, children whose families
enjoy spousal harmony, adequate financial resourc-
es, and sensitive, supportive parenting tend to
experience a later onset of puberty and sexual
activity. That is, depending on environmental cues
about the availability and predictability of resourc-
es (broadly defined), development follows one of
two distinct reproductive strategies.Empirical studies provide partial support for
this model. Menarche occurs earlier among girls
who live in mother-only households or with stepfa-
thers. Conflict in parent-child relationships or low
levels of warmth are also associated with earlier
menarche (Ellis and Graber forthcoming; Graber,
Brooks-Gunn, and Warren 1995; Surbey 1990).
Drawing on longitudinal data, Moffitt and her
colleagues (1992) report that family conflict and
the absence of a father in childhood lead to earlier
menarche, although this relationship is not medi-
ated by any psychological factors examined in
their study. Research findings to date, however,
are open to genetic interpretation. It may be that
early-maturing mothers transmit a genetic predis-
position toward early puberty and the same genes
produce traits in the mother that affect parenting
(Rowe forthcoming) finds some support for both
models. Maccoby (1991) suggests an additional
class of explanations, namely that these findings
reflect social psychological processes (e.g., the ado-
lescent’s imitation of the mother’s permissiveness).The accelerated life course may also involve
the rapid assumption of autonomy not typically
associated with adolescent roles. This form may
appear in the adoption of the parent role by
adolescents in their family of origin, what Minuchin
(1974) refers to as the ‘‘parental child.’’ Children
and adolescents may respond to the family’s emo-
tional and practical needs through activities such
as serving as a confidant to a parent, mediating
family disputes, and the extensive parenting of
younger siblings. Young people may assume re-
sponsibilities such as these in single, working-
parent homes, which can have positive conse-
quences for adolescents but detrimental effects
for younger children (Weiss 1979). The contex-
tual and interpersonal factors that promote
‘‘parentification,’’ however, are potentially numer-
ous and complex, perhaps encompassing family
structure, sibship size, marital dysfunction, and
the employment status of the parents (Jurkovic 1997).