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As others have said or implied, this isn't a scientific question - it's a cultural one. Human adulthood is defined in myriad ways across different cultures and time periods. It isn't a scientific classification at all.
If you go into the human development literature, a scientific literature, you won't find anybody asking the scientific question: when does a person become a fully grown adult? You'll find people researching questions about different aspects of the developmental process - when does the adolescent growth spurt end? When do bones reach their maximal length, and what causes this? At what age have all the structures and functions of the adult brain taken shape? What environmental factors influence all of the above? And so on.
There are many relevant scientific questions to the cultural question of how to define adulthood. But adulthood is not a scientific classification in the sense you mean.
At 18 most people are done with high school or about to graduate. Therefore ready to enter the labor market as full time employees, or enter college, or both. In theory, if you are ready to work, you can sustain yourself, therefore you own your destiny. Having the adulthood age at 18 have economical implications, since that also the age in which you can enter the financial market and establish credit history, enter the housing market (most likely as renters), and be overall consumers.
Also brain and behavioral development as Hank Green explains here.
Did something change in the 1800s that necessitated the age to be bumped to 18? If not, I don't see how this argument hold.
Well, mandatory public school in the US was instituted. When you finished high school, people were usually 18 years old. That's the only thing I can think of. However, keep in mind that even through 1940 many people dropped out of US public school by grade 8 (about age 13) to help on farms or get a job to help their family.
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[–] [deleted] 0 points 7 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago
[–] [deleted] 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago (edited ago)
[–] lodro 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
As others have said or implied, this isn't a scientific question - it's a cultural one. Human adulthood is defined in myriad ways across different cultures and time periods. It isn't a scientific classification at all.
If you go into the human development literature, a scientific literature, you won't find anybody asking the scientific question: when does a person become a fully grown adult? You'll find people researching questions about different aspects of the developmental process - when does the adolescent growth spurt end? When do bones reach their maximal length, and what causes this? At what age have all the structures and functions of the adult brain taken shape? What environmental factors influence all of the above? And so on.
There are many relevant scientific questions to the cultural question of how to define adulthood. But adulthood is not a scientific classification in the sense you mean.
[–] [deleted] 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago (edited ago)
[–] lodro 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Ah, I see. I think you're right - this is a question for historians, or perhaps sociologists.
[–] OhHellYeah 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
At 18 most people are done with high school or about to graduate. Therefore ready to enter the labor market as full time employees, or enter college, or both. In theory, if you are ready to work, you can sustain yourself, therefore you own your destiny. Having the adulthood age at 18 have economical implications, since that also the age in which you can enter the financial market and establish credit history, enter the housing market (most likely as renters), and be overall consumers. Also brain and behavioral development as Hank Green explains here.
[–] [deleted] 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago
[–] crankypants15 ago
Well, mandatory public school in the US was instituted. When you finished high school, people were usually 18 years old. That's the only thing I can think of. However, keep in mind that even through 1940 many people dropped out of US public school by grade 8 (about age 13) to help on farms or get a job to help their family.