Childhood vs Adulthood

Abstract
Childhood and adulthood are distinct stages of life, characterized by distinct physiological and psychological features and characteristics. However, there is no absolute demarcation between childhood and adulthood. Adolescence represents a sort of transitional phase, but each of these phases of development may be further broken down into different stages of emotional, biological, and personal development. The social role and function of the child or adolescent also differs dramatically from that of the adult. Legally and normatively in most cultures, children are exempt from the responsibilities adults bear. The greatest differences between childhood and adulthood include the biological, neurobiological, and physiological differences in human development across the lifespan. However, the psychological differences between childhood and adulthood are also striking. Some of the differences between child and adult psychology include issues related to self-concept, identity, ethics, coping, and emotional maturity. The most notable similarities between childhood and adulthood include the ongoing human needs for learning, play, and social interactions.
Introduction
Childhood and adulthood clearly represent distinct stages of human development. From birth until at least the age of sexual maturity, children remain dependent on adult caregivers for meeting most of their physical, social, and emotional needs. Puberty marks the start of adolescence, which can be considered either a distinct developmental stage or the beginning of adulthood. Historical and cultural context determines how adolescence is conceptualized and also the status of teenagers in the society. It was not long ago that teenagers and even younger children were considered of legitimate working age. 
The differences between childhood and adulthood are physiological. Yet the psychological, intellectual, emotional, and social differences between these two life stages are also of critical importance. Moreover, the way each culture defines childhood and adulthood has a bearing on how children and adults behave, how they think, and what status they have in the society. Children are generally considered exempt from moral culpability, whereas adults are held responsible for their actions both morally and legally. Yet in many situations, children can be tried in adult courts of law. Therefore, the definition of adulthood is actually more malleable than it may seem.
Various fields in both social science and biology lend insight into the differences between childhood and adulthood. Developmental psychologists and child psychologists have proposed various theories and offered models for understanding the stages of human development. Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, and Lawrence Kohlberg have offered some of the most enduring theories of child psychosocial development. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs also sheds light on the differences—and similarities—between childhood and adulthood.
While the differences between childhood and adulthood sometimes seem to outweigh the similarities, adults retain many of their physical and psychological traits throughout their lives. Personality psychology shows how some features of a person’s psyche remain remarkably stable over time, and also that early childhood experiences can leave lingering effects on a person’s self-concept and perception of reality. Even what one experiences as an infant may impact that person as an adult. Genetic research illustrates that not only do parents pass on their physical traits to their children but also their psychological tendencies. Some psychiatric illnesses are heritable. Adults as well as children have a poignant need for playtime, for exercising intellectual curiosity, for love and affection, social interaction, humor, and learning new things.
Dependency
The most important of all the differences between childhood and adulthood is related to meeting basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, security, and affection. In early childhood especially, the child is dependent on adults or at least older siblings for meeting basic needs. An infant or toddler would die if it were left on its own. By the early childhood stage, though, around the age of five, the child gains some degree of independence (“Periods of Development,” n.d.). While not fully independent, a child around the age of five has mastered basic communication skills and sensory-motor skills. Yet even with a greater sense of self-mastery and control over the environment, children are still dependent on adult caregivers. Elder children may be able to provide the most basic elements of food, shelter, clothing, security, and affection, but a young child has no legal status in the greater community. Social norms and laws in most countries mandate that children go to school rather than stay home or work. Adults, on the other hand, are expected to fend for themselves or rely on other adults to pool resources and divide tasks. As independent as adults are, though, few could exist outside of a community. Therefore, both children and adults remain dependent on a family, a community, or social institutions throughout their lives.
Children are legally dependent on adults. A child rarely has the option of gaining legal emancipation from parents. Adults who have severe disabilities can become legal dependents on other person. An adult with no disabilities, who remains dependent on parents or social institutions, may be socially sanctioned. Unlike a child, an adult is expected to be able to provide for his or her own food, shelter, clothing, and other basic needs. Both adults and children do need other human beings to meet higher-order needs such as the need for love.
Personal Responsibility and Moral Culpability
Children are considered less morally culpable than their adult counterparts. Differentiating the moral status of children versus adults may seem intuitive, but it took research in the field of psychology and human development to show that children do not have the capacity for moral reasoning in the same way that adults do (Kohlberg, 1971). Prior to the twentieth century, older children and especially adolescents would have been held more personally accountable for their actions and even legally responsible. As a result of empirical research in child moral development, children are now not held legally responsible for their actions. Except for extreme circumstances, adults are held legally and morally responsible for their actions. Adults are expected to be aware of legal and social sanctions and to follow rules; children are only punished for breaking rules but adults can be more severely sanctioned via the legal system. Adolescence is the liminal period between childhood and adulthood. Moral reasoning should be fairly well-developed by late adolescence, which is why some states in the United States can try teenagers as adults. Therefore, adolescents and adults share more in common than young children and adolescents when it comes to personal responsibility for actions.
Yet both children and adults are still learning how to behave in a more ethical manner. Social norms and codes of behaviors also change over time, due to historical circumstances or cultural shifts. What was considered a crime a century ago may not be so now and vice-versa. Both adults and children develop empathy via their connections with other people. When an older child or an adult realizes that his or her actions caused another to feel pain, they may be inspired to change their behavior. If their behavior continues to harm others, both children and adults will be socially sanctioned or legally prosecuted. Therefore, children are not held as personally responsible for their actions as adults and yet children and adults both continue to grow in their ethical reasoning throughout the lifetime. 
Physical, Biological, and Physiological Differences
All human beings—adults and children both—continue to grow and change physically throughout the lifetime. Children grow many times more rapidly than adults, though. From infancy to puberty, a child undergoes dramatic physiological changes. Bones that are malleable at birth start to harden; a young child’s senses become more attuned to its environment. The physiological changes influence almost every aspect of the individual’s life, from how they interact with other objects and people to how they feel and perceive the world. An adult is not just a larger version of a child. Almost every feature of the adult body will be different from its child counterpart, including the ways the body processes food. 
Children under the age of five are still mastering gross and fine motor skills. Once those skills are mastered, though, both adults and children can continue to master and develop fine motor skills. Children may be able to learn new activities faster than adults, and the body’s ability to heal from injury also diminishes in adulthood. Unfortunately, both children and adults have the capacity to feel pain and experience disease. 
Emotional and Social Maturity
Children are not innately able to control their emotions, and nor are many adults. Yet children learn from an early age that some forms of emotional expression are acceptable and some are not. Culture, family background, gender, and personality are all factors that play into which forms of emotional expression are deemed socially acceptable. Adults also continually learn how to regulate their emotions, and how to cope with or process difficult emotions like anger or fear. The need for solace and social support is something that does not change as a person ages. Both children and adults need support and love.
Therefore, becoming an adult is more than just a process of physical development, or gaining personal responsibility for ethical reasoning. Being an adult means becoming more self-aware and more respectful of others (Piccione, 2016). Adults learn to make sacrifices that few children would make on their own volition. Of course, there are many children who demonstrate a much higher degree of emotional and social intelligence than some adults. Many adults fail to reach a level of emotional or social maturity, reacting to adverse stimuli with childlike tantrums just as some children seem remarkably poised to face life’s adversities. Children tend to be more idealistic than adults because they have yet to experience as many setbacks. Having met with rejection and the complex politics involved in every sector, adults have a more realistic but possibly more pessimistic sense of what can be done and how.
Learning and Intellectual Development
Among the most salient similarities between adulthood and childhood is the ongoing penchant for learning. As Armstrong (2019) points out, playfulness, imagination, ingenuity, passion, and enterprise are all developed during childhood and these traits endure across the human lifespan. All children become keenly engaged, curious about their environment and eager to reach out and touch the objects and people around them. Due to the increasing pressure of social norms and rules of behavior, children become less spontaneous in their expression of natural curiosity but do not silence it entirely. Instead, children learn how to ask questions in formal ways and interact with objects and people in socially acceptable ways. Adults continue to ask questions and learn about their world. Some adults grow cynical or intellectually stuck, but being dull or depressed are not necessarily natural features of the aging process.
The Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy also illustrates some of the important similarities and differences between childhood and adulthood. All of the basic human needs such as for food, shelter, clothing, and security are needs that persist throughout a person’s life. The need for love and belonging is also a persistent need that both adults and children share. Higher needs, though, tend to only emerge by late adolescence or early adulthood. The need for self-esteem and worthiness is one of those higher-order needs. Another is the need for self-actualization or self-fulfillment. A defining difference between adults and children is that adults tend to crave higher-order needs to a greater degree than children, who remain focused on lower-order needs. 
Conclusion: nature and nurture
Both nature and nurture impact human development. Genetics determine central physiological features, the tendency towards certain diseases or conditions, the structure of the body, and the pace of physiological development. Upbringing, socialization, culture, nutrition, and exposure to environmental stimuli then interact with one’s predispositions to create a complex set of variables that characterizes the individual. Both children and adults are affected by nature equally as much as they are impacted by nurture.
Obviously, children tend to be smaller than adults and not as used to making difficult decisions. Their sense of self and their moral reasoning is far more simplistic than that of adults. Because of the differences between adulthood and childhood, children have fewer legal responsibilities versus adults. Adults can vote, children cannot. Yet it is important to remember that the line between childhood and adulthood is a blurry one. Not all adults can vote—convicted felons being a prime example. Non-citizen adults of a country also cannot vote. Some children can be tried for their crimes in an adult court of law.