Juvenile stage refers to the stage of a living being after birth and before sexual maturity. After that, they are considered adults (adolescence); before that, they are in the embryonic stage. In humans, the juvenile phase goes from infancy to early adolescence (pubescence).
What is the juvenile stage?
The juvenile phase refers to the phase of a living being after birth and before sexual maturity. The term juvenile phase can apply to any living thing and roughly outlines the period after birth until sexual maturity. In humans, the juvenile phase can be subdivided even more finely, as it is in many mammals. The latter often end the juvenile phase with sexual maturity, but are then far from adult and are called immature. In humans, strictly speaking, the juvenile phase begins immediately after birth and ends with sexual maturity and the onset of puberty. However, in this classification, the juvenile phase includes other subphases; in humans, these are, in particular, the infant and toddler phases and childhood until the onset of puberty. In most cases, puberty itself has already begun in the ending juvenile phase. Accordingly, during the juvenile phase, the individual undergoes a series of formative physical and psychological developments. Moreover, he is far from being an adult after its completion. Only in the course of puberty does he develop physically and mentally into an adult.
Function and task
During the juvenile phase, developments occur that will shape the individual throughout his adult years. He learns his basic attachment behavior in the infant phase (see, for example, bonding); disruptions can have a negative impact on his ability to attach or on his relationship with his own children throughout his life. He learns to move his body purposefully and deliberately; gross and fine motor skills develop over the next few years. Early childhood reflexes signal the rapid development of the central nervous system. Because humans are born into the juvenile phase as extremely premature compared to other mammals, many developments happen very quickly and also in leaps and bounds. In the toddler phase, the learned attachment behavior deepens, and the child also walks and talks with increasing confidence. Cognitive abilities are formed. People also develop psychologically in a formative way during the juvenile phase. For example, while babies still assume that their needs are the same as those of all the other people around them, toddlers learn that other people do not always want the same things as they do. The juvenile phase shapes the child’s social behavior through parents and contact with friends. At the end of the juvenile phase, many children already have a very clear, in parts very adult, picture of the world, can articulate themselves in a chosen way, and have been able to move around completely independently for years. If the juvenile phase passes into puberty, they are so far developed physically and psychologically that they basically only grow to their final body size, undergo some final physical and mental developments, and are then considered adults. Thus, the juvenile stage is the time when humans develop physically and mentally to the point that only sexual maturity is missing as an essential factor.
Diseases and ailments
Since the juvenile phase is so formative in physical and psychological respects, weighty physical and mental maldevelopments and illnesses can occur during it. In many cases, an event occurs during the juvenile phase that can trigger a disease only in years or decades. Some hereditary diseases become noticeable only in the infant and toddler phase; during pregnancy they may not have been noticed at all. These include, for example, Pompe’s disease, phenylketonuria or hemophilia. Several food intolerances, allergies and intolerances also often develop during the juvenile phase and are usually not life-threatening, but require treatment. Diseases occurring during the juvenile phase include childhood cancer, but fortunately this is rare. Less rare are maldevelopments, which may have congenital, acquired, or external causes and triggers. Disorders of organ function often remain undetected until the organ is responsible for a development and it is disturbed.Towards the end of the juvenile phase, when puberty occurs too early, too late or not at all, problems with the thyroid gland or the pituitary gland become noticeable, as they are responsible for the production of puberty-triggering hormones. Physical disorders and anomalies in the juvenile phase are so risky because they can influence physical maturation processes in such a way that permanent damage occurs. If puberty does not occur, it would not be possible to make up for it in adulthood, not even through the subsequent administration of hormones. Permanent damage can include underdevelopment of the reproductive organs and even infertility. In addition to the spectrum of physical disorders, psychological damage can also occur during the juvenile phase. Attachment disorders, traumas or similar formative experiences often do not affect an adult person, but they consolidate in a person’s subconscious. They don’t even have to affect him immediately, but they do show up later in life through recurring problems or disturbing behavior patterns. Since they dig into the subconscious during the juvenile phase, depth psychological treatment is necessary to make such damage recognizable in the first place. Especially the infant and toddler phase is problematic in this context, since the patient later remembers this period of his juvenile phase least consciously.
