A.T. Jersild's definition regarding adolescence highlights the following:

Concept

A question that asks what a particular definition highlights is a test of textual fidelity, not of general knowledge about the topic. The correct restatement must carry over every element the quoted sentence actually contains — the boundaries it draws and the dimensions it names — and must not import any claim from outside that sentence.

So the method is fixed: isolate the quoted words, break them into their component claims, and then look for the statement that reproduces those components and only those. Anything true of the topic but absent from the quotation is outside the scope of the question.

Applying the method here

Jersild’s definition, as quoted in the passage, is: “Adolescence is that span of years during which boys and girls move from childhood to adulthood, mentally, emotionally, socially and physically.” Broken into its components:

• A span of years — adolescence is framed as a period of time, not a single event or a moment of change.

• Movement from childhood to adulthood — the definition fixes the two endpoints between which that period runs.

• Across four named dimensions — mentally, emotionally, socially and physically — so growth in all four belongs to the same passage of time.

The statement that a child moves from childhood to adulthood mentally, emotionally, socially and physically reproduces the transition and all four named dimensions. Although it does not repeat the introductory phrase ‘a span of years’, it is the only offered statement that faithfully captures what Jersild’s definition highlights.

Cross-check against the other statements

Each of the remaining statements asserts something the quoted sentence never asserts:

• “Adolescents spend less time in front of the television than other age groups” is a claim about how leisure time is spent; the quoted definition says nothing about adolescents’ activities or habits.

• “Adolescents reject their parents as companions and as a source of advice” is a claim about changing relationships; the definition names the social dimension as an area of growth, but makes no claim about parents being rejected.

• “Only a minority of adolescents experience some serious psychological issues” is a claim about how widespread difficulty is; the definition describes the transition itself, not how many adolescents find it difficult.

A caution worth carrying forward

The passage supplies other facts too — the Latin root ‘adolescere’, meaning ‘to grow to maturity’, and the rough age range from 12 to the early twenties. Those belong to the passage as a whole, not specifically to Jersild’s quoted definition. When a question names a specific authority, answer it from that authority’s quoted words alone.