Adolescence is often considered as a passage. In every culture, there are ways of setlling and regulating problems of passage from one status to another – among these the status of adolescent – without too much anxiety for novices and already initiated adults. In ours o-called modern societies, which are complex and culturally mixed, there seems to be a greater risk of adolescents getting lost and remain on the margins. We would like to clarify the notion of rites of passage recall their definition and functions using the work of A. Van Gennep.