Puberty culminates in a dramatic and visually apparent set of changes in each individual. Social and psychological effects of the meaning of these changes are an important component in understanding the significance of puberty for adolescents and their behavior. (CJ)

The issue of whether or not early adolescence is a transitional or stable period of development may be dependent on our ability to describe ways in which early adolescents are quantitatively and qualitatively different from when they were children and how these early adolescent characteristics are forerunners to the more elaborate constructs of…