An adult human being has already reached full development.
Adult is someone or something that has already reached its full development . According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), it is an adjective that comes from the Latin word adultus .
For example: “When you are an adult, you will make your own decisions: now you are a child and you must obey me because I am your father” , “On the right, you can see an adult leopard” , “A century after our independence , we are an adult and mature country” .
Children need the presence of an adult for their development , at least within a normal social framework , where the activities and knowledge necessary for survival are in the hands of adults. In addition to learning to speak, read and write, they must receive examples of interpersonal relationships, which are essential when the time comes for them to go out into the outside world and deal with other people.
Adults according to biology and justice
In biology , an organism reaches adulthood when it can reproduce . In the case of humans, the notion is also linked to various legal and cultural issues, transcending the aspect linked to physiology and reproductive capacity.
The first stage of human life is childhood , then comes adolescence and finally the individual becomes an adult, when his physical development is already complete, at which time he can make greater use of his faculties. Adulthood, in turn, can be divided into different stages, such as early adulthood , middle adulthood and late adulthood or old age .
Legally, it is common to consider that a person is an adult from the age of 18 or 21 , depending on the legal system. It is believed that, from a certain age, the subject already has the physical and psychological maturity necessary to make his or her own decisions consciously and assuming the consequences of his or her actions.
For society, adults must be productive.
The social gaze
An adult, generally, must engage in some work or productive activity to obtain the resources that allow him or her to survive and support his or her children. That is why early and middle adults constitute the active economic group of a society : children and adolescents must attend school, while older adults are already retired.
It should be noted that this is not always the case, especially in the current era, characterized by the breaking away from many of the structures and precepts that were valid in the past. One of the points that is becoming less common is parenthood : while there are many traditionalist people, who believe in the basic family model, and are born prepared to marry and procreate, there are also those who choose to find their own way through professional and personal development, without the need for a partner.
On the other hand, adulthood is not something that can be defined in the same way for all cases, since it is not a concept necessarily linked to physical maturity or the age of an individual, as can be seen in many artists and free-spirited people who continue to enjoy life as if they were children. This does not mean that before the law they are adults, but from a social point of view they are closer to childhood .
Becoming an adult seems like a natural thing to do, but some people say that it is possible to voluntarily refuse to take that step, preferring to keep the inner child alive so as not to lose the intensity of the early years . While some people never question the mandates and passively allow their environment to transform them into husbands, fathers and grandparents, others discover in time that there are infinite possibilities.