Preadolescence

Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is commonly defined as ages 9–12 ending with the major onset of puberty. It may also be defined as simply the 2-year period before the major onset of puberty. Preadolescence can bring its own challenges and anxieties. A term used to refer to the preadolescent stage in everyday speech is tween and its perhaps older variants tweenie, tweeny, tweenager, and tweener. It's a blend (portmanteau) of the words "teen" and "between" in the sense of "between childhood and adolescence" and refers to 8-, 9-, or 10- to 12-year-olds. Sometimes the terms tweenie and tweenager are used to differentiate between older (10 to 15) and younger (7 to 11) age groups, respectively. While known as preadolescent in psychology, the terms preteen or tween are common in everyday use. A preteen or preteenager is a person ages 12 and under. Generally, the term is restricted to those close to reaching age 13, especially ages 9 to 12. Tween is an American neologism and marketing term for preteen, which is a blend of between and teen. People within this age range are variously described as tweens, preadolescents, tweenies, preteens, pubescents, middle schoolers, or tweenagers. A junior high school can sometimes be confused with a middle school. Though serving a similar purpose in bridging a gap between elementary school and high school, a junior high school typically serves 7th to 9th grade students, whereas a middle school serves 6th to 8th grade students. Therefore, middle schools serve a slightly younger demographic, more befitting of preadolescents, while junior high schools typically serve young adolescents. Being prepubescent is not the same thing as being preadolescent. Instead, prepubescent (and sometimes child) is a term for boys and girls who have not developed secondary sex characteristics, while preadolescent is generally defined as those ranging from age 9 to 12 years.