the period of life prior to or leading up to adolescence; childhood, the preadolescent stage
preadolescence in American English
(ˌpriædlˈesəns)
noun
the period preceding adolescence, usually designated as the years from 10 to 13
Word origin
[1925–30; pre- + adolescence]This word is first recorded in the period 1925–30. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Nazi, buildup, recycle, reflex camera, runoutpre- is a prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “before”(preclude; prevent); applied freely as a prefix, with the meanings “prior to,” “in advance of,” “early,”“beforehand,” “before,” “in front of,” and with other figurative meanings (preschool; prewar; prepay: preoral; prefrontal)
Examples of 'preadolescence' in a sentence
preadolescence
The peak ages of amygdalar and hippocampal volumes came at the timing of preadolescence (9-11 years old).
Akiko Uematsu, Mie Matsui, Chiaki Tanaka, Tsutomu Takahashi, Kyo Noguchi, Michio Suzuki,Hisao Nishijo 2012, 'Developmental trajectories of amygdala and hippocampus from infancy to early adulthoodin healthy individuals.', PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3467280?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Recently it has been suggested that rearing conditions during preadolescence in one generation may affect health outcomes in subsequent generations.
David Carslake, Pia R. Pinger, Pål Romundstad, George Davey Smith 2016, 'Early-Onset Paternal Smoking and Offspring Adiposity: Further Investigation of a PotentialIntergenerational Effect Using the HUNT Study', PLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.0166952. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
An important puzzle concerns why indirect aggression becomes more covert, and tattling more derogated, in preadolescence and adolescence.
Gordon P. D. Ingram 2014, 'From Hitting to Tattling to Gossip: An Evolutionary Rationale for the Developmentof Indirect Aggression', Evolutionary Psychologyhttps://doi.org/10.1177/147470491401200205. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)