Appearance-Related Victimization and Pubertal Asynchrony: Identifying Sex-Specific Vulnerabilities.

Abstract

Pubertal development is associated with many psychosocial and interpersonal changes, including a dramatic rise in appearance-related victimization. Yet, it is unclear what aspects of pubertal development provoke victimization along with which, and when, youth are at heightened risk. The present study seeks to address this gap by examining the effect of pubertal asynchrony (i.e., temporal variation in an individual's pubertal milestones) on appearance-related victimization and by determining whether associations between asynchrony and victimization differ by sex and pubertal status. In follow-up analyses, associations between pubertal asynchrony and different typologies of victimization were also assessed. Participants included 373 youth (Mage = 13.51 [1.62]; 40% girls, 60% boys; 61% White) drawn from an online sample. The results showed that more pubertal asynchrony was associated with more appearance-related victimization, especially for girls, but associations did not differ across pubertal status. Latent profile analyses of appearance-related victimization further suggested that asynchronous youth were more likely to be in profiles characterized by high appearance-related victimization as well as those characterized by high height-based victimization (boys only). The findings suggest that pubertal asynchrony contributes to appearance-related victimization in adolescence and highlights the need for targeted intervention efforts related to pubertal development and specific typologies of victimization.