Maturation is known as the process by which any living being grows and develops until it reaches its point of maximum fullness. Maturation is a process because it does not happen from one moment to the next, but occurs from the unleashing of certain events and elements. In some cases, the maturation can last brief moments (as for example in some insects) while in other living beings it can take years (as for example, the human being).
We can say that all living beings go through a maturation process that makes them come out of their most fragile and vulnerable stage to become fully and fully developed beings that can fend for themselves and leave offspring to maintain the species. In the case of human beings, maturation is a very complex process since it involves not only physical or biological but also social and cultural notions and issues that greatly influence the way in which the individual is shaping their personality and identity. .
When we talk about the maturation of the human being, specialists have marked different stages. The first of these is childhood (also today subdivided into several childhoods), one in which children are defenseless, fragile and must have the assistance of adults to survive. Childhood is considered to be up to 10 years, at which time the child enters the stage of puberty and pre-adolescence. At this point they begin to develop a certain autonomy and seek to question the world around them. Adolescence is perhaps the last part of maturation, the one in which the individual finishes forming his identity, his interests and faces fears, insecurities, etc. to finally enter adulthood.
However, this classification into stages is very rigid and today human society presents many variants to them. In this sense, there are societies in which the child comes to be considered an adult after the age of 10 and others in which young people show traits of immaturity and adolescence even after having passed the age of 25. This represents substantial changes with the idea of maturation and that is why the concept itself must be carefully analyzed in each case.
