Abstract
AimTo examine individual variability between perceived physical features and hormones of pubertal maturation in 9–10-year-old children as a function of sociodemographic characteristics.MethodsCross-sectional metrics of puberty were utilized from the baseline assessment of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study—a multi-site sample of 9–10 year-olds (n = 11,875)—and included perceived physical features via the pubertal development scale (PDS) and child salivary hormone levels (dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone in all, and estradiol in females). Multi-level models examined the relationships among sociodemographic measures, physical features, and hormone levels. A group factor analysis (GFA) was implemented to extract latent variables of pubertal maturation that integrated both measures of perceived physical features and hormone levels.ResultsPDS summary scores indicated more males (70%) than females (31%) were prepubertal. Perceived physical features and hormone levels were significantly associated with child’s weight status and income, such that more mature scores were observed among children that were overweight/obese or from households with low-income. Results from the GFA identified two latent factors that described individual differences in pubertal maturation among both females and males, with factor 1 driven by higher hormone levels, and factor 2 driven by perceived physical maturation. The correspondence between latent factor 1 scores (hormones) and latent factor 2 scores (perceived physical maturation) revealed synchronous and asynchronous relationships between hormones and concomitant physical features in this large young adolescent sample.ConclusionsSociodemographic measures were associated with both objective hormone and self-report physical measures of pubertal maturation in a large, diverse sample of 9–10 year-olds. The latent variables of pubertal maturation described a complex interplay between perceived physical changes and hormone levels that hallmark sexual maturation, which future studies can examine in relation to trajectories of brain maturation, risk/resilience to substance use, and other mental health outcomes.
Highlights
Puberty is an important developmental milestone that begins with rising hormone levels and leads to physical changes in secondary sex characteristics
For the effect of age and age-by-sex interactions, we explored both linear and non-linear associations using the linear mixed effect modeling (LME; R package nlme) and general additive modeling (GAM; gamm4), respectively
70.0% of males and 30.7% of females were perceived as prepubertal, 24.1% of males and 23.5% of females were perceived as being in the earlypubertal stage, and 5.3% of males and 43.0% of females were reported to be in the mid-pubertal range
Summary
Puberty is an important developmental milestone that begins with rising hormone levels and leads to physical changes in secondary sex characteristics. Individual differences in the age when physical changes emerge vary widely, with a typical onset between 8 to years in females and 9 to years in males [3]. There are significant implications of pubertal timing for health and wellbeing, the foundational studies that are credited for our current understanding of pubertal onset may not generalize to today’s youth, as study samples often lacked diversity and consideration of the larger sociodemographic context [3, 13,14,15]. Studies are needed to expand our basic understanding of individual differences in pubertal development in large samples of both sexes [1], as well as in narrowed age ranges, to determine the optimal approach to integrate multiple complex measures of puberty for a given individual prior to exploring relationships with developmental outcomes
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