The author focuses on the question of what ?adolescence= actually is. What are the challenges and problems that young people face in this age group? What are the special aspects and basic qualities of this situation as part of life and the sense of life it brings with it? The book provides an overview of the most important theories of adolescence. Starting with the ?classical= positions in adolescence theory, the volume goes on to open up interdisciplinary approaches to the topic in which different interpretations arising from psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, neurobiology, sociology and finally educational studies are presented and discussed in concise form. As the opening volume in the ?Adolescence= series, the book supplies a theoretical and scholarly framework for the series with an instructive and wide-ranging overview of the relevant approaches to the theory of adolescence.

Prof. Rolf Göppel teaches at the Institute for Educational Science at the Heidelberg College of Education, with a special focus on ?General Education=.