Roberts, C.Puberty in Crisis: The Sociology of Early Sexual Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2015. 300pp £64.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781107104723

Abstract

Epidemiological studies suggest that more girls are now entering puberty before the age of eight. In the biomedical literature, early-onset puberty is described as an unsettling experience for parents and is considered to have both short-term and long-term physical, social and psychological risks for girls. Consequently, early-onset puberty is framed as a ‘crisis’ in need of monitoring, measurement and management. In Puberty in Crisis, Celia Roberts explores, but ultimately resists, this ‘crisis’ articulation and opens up an alternative way of theorising such bodies. Roberts argues that many who hold an interest in this - including biomedical communities, parents and pharmaceutical companies - produce and engage with early-onset puberty. Roberts describes the dialogical and multiple ways in which current understandings of pathological bodies are loaded with psychological and social issues. Instead of framing early-onset puberty simply as a biomedical concern, Roberts argues for a sustained interdisciplinary conversation that acknowledges it as a biopsychosocial entity. Roberts’ study is literature-based. Her methodological approach is to treat the scientific and medical literatures of early onset puberty in an ethnographic manner; in other words, it is the literature that acts as the informant. In providing a rationale for her approach, Roberts claims that she does not take ‘biological facts’ for granted, instead she chooses to handle them as ‘findings’ that are the results of complex interactions between professionals, institutional requirements and scientific traditions. This makes her ethnographic site extensive, and it includes not only biomedical studies but also media press releases, pharmaceutical websites, blogs, vlogs and environmental campaigns. The book commences with a historical account of the physiological studies of sexual development and proceeds to detail the causes and consequences of early onset puberty. In doing so, Roberts draws from various disciplinary perspectives, such as psychology, nutrition sciences and genetics, concluding that the ways in which risk, childhood, futurity and sex are mobilised is through narratives of crisis and developmental normativity. Roberts draws on literature from sociology and feminism to argue that biomedical intervention for early-onset puberty, such as pharmaceutical treatments that effectively ‘pause’ physical development, raise serious ethical concerns and fail to take into account the contingent, bio-psycho-social nature of early sexual development. Roberts acknowledges that providing such a broad overview to the various approaches of early-onset puberty involves sacrificing an in-depth examination of any one perspective. However, her aim is not to provide a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of precocious puberty but to map out the diversity within which the discourse of crisis is voiced. Throughout the book, Roberts continues to situate the crisis discourse alongside critical feminist scholars such as Donna Haraway and Karen Barad and alongside wider scientific and cultural understandings of childhood and adolescence. Puberty in Crisis does not require of the reader previous biomedical or scientific knowledge of pubertal growth, since Roberts clearly explains and continually situates the scientific studies under scrutiny. In sum, Roberts successfully challenges the crisis discourse surrounding early-onset puberty while paying careful attention to matters of physical and psycho-social health. She demonstrates the importance of keeping a broad interdisciplinary eye on the various perspectives of a given topic and she urges social scientists of medicine and science to engage with a seemingly disparate set of intellectual traditions. Particularly striking is her ability to not be overly critical of the biomedical approach but instead to compel the reader to look beyond the crisis narrative and adopt a perspective that acknowledges diversity in sexual development. The book is engagingly written and provokes a rethinking of what constitutes crisis, risk and uncertainty in the bodies of young developing girls. It will appeal to readers interested in studies of sex, gender and children's development and readers will be confronted with an understanding of early-onset puberty as a complex entanglement of biological, psychological and social influences, where the discourse of crisis must be challenged.