Early Physical Maturation Research Articles

Early physical maturation and subjective health complaints in adolescent girls: a pooled cross-sectional analysis

BackgroundAlthough adolescents are generally healthy, subjective health complaints (SHC) are common in this age group, especially in adolescent girls. We explored the association between early menarche and the frequency of...

The value of early physical maturity to young adult labor market outcomes

Puberty is the most important developmental milestone closely preceding a young adult’s labor market decisions. Thus, we examine the variation in the timing of physical maturity during adolescence to isolate its association with employment and hourly wages for US young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data, we find an early maturity premium of about 6% for females and 8% for males, but no employment advantage, in excess of gains from height and physical attractiveness. Cognitive and personality factors significantly explain this premium for both genders, but job attributes are also important for males.

The Value of Early Physical Maturity to Young Adult Labor Market Outcomes

Puberty is the most important developmental milestone closely preceding a young adult’s labor market decisions. Thus, we examine the variation in the timing of physical maturity during adolescence to isolate its impact on employment and hourly wages for US young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data, we find an early maturity premium of about 6% for females and 8% for males, but no employment effects, in excess of gains from height and physical attractiveness. Cognitive and personality factors significantly explain this premium for both genders, but job attributes are also important for males.

Impact of pubertal timing and depression on error-related brain activity in anxious youth.

Anxiety disorders are associated with enhanced error-related negativity (ERN) across development but it remains unclear whether alterations in brain electrophysiology are linked to the timing of puberty. Pubertal timing and alterations of prefrontal and limbic development are implicated in risk for depression, but the interplay of these factors on the ERN-anxiety association has not been assessed. We examined the unique and interactive effects of pubertal timing and depression on the ERN in a sample of youth 10-19years old with anxiety disorders (n=30) or no history of psychopathology (n=30). Earlier pubertal maturation was associated with an enhanced ERN. Among early, but not late maturing youth, higher depressive symptoms were associated with a reduced ERN. The magnitude of neural reactivity to errors is sensitive to anxiety, depression, and development. Early physical maturation and anxiety may heighten neural sensitivity to errors yet predict opposing effects in the context of depression.

Childhood trauma, pubertal timing, and cardiovascular risk in adulthood.

An association between childhood trauma and adult health outcomes has been widely reported, but little is known about the developmental pathways through which childhood trauma influences adult cardiovascular disease (CVD). Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 405 African Americans from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS). Path modeling was used to test our theoretical model. Replicating prior research, exposure to childhood trauma was associated positively with increases in symptoms of CVD risk across young adulthood even after controlling for a variety of health-related and health behavior covariates. Further, the association of childhood trauma with CVD risk was mediated by early pubertal maturation. There were no gender differences in the magnitude of this effect. Our findings support an evolutionary-development perspective (Belsky & Shalev, 2016) suggesting that early adverse life experiences lead to early biologically embedded changes reflected in early physical maturation and that these early changes predict later negative adult health outcomes. The results imply that early pubertal maturation is a precursor to vulnerability to long term health problems. From an intervention standpoint, identifying such developmental pathways may help inform future health-promoting interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dynamics of body time, social time and life history at adolescence

Recent opposing trends towards earlier physical maturation and later social maturation present a conundrum of apparent biological-social mismatch. Here we use life history analysis from evolutionary ecology to identify forces that drive these shifts. Together with findings in developmental science, our life history analysis indicates that adolescence is a distinctive period for biological embedding of culture. Ethnographic evidence shows that mass education is a novel feature of the globalizing cultural configurations of adolescence, which are driven by transformations in labour, livelihood and lifestyle. Evaluation of the life history trade-offs and sociocultural ecologies that are experienced by adolescents may offer a practical basis for enhancing their development.

Girls' and boys' trajectories of appearance anxiety from age 10 to 15 years are associated with earlier maturation and appearance-related teasing.

Adolescents' appearance-related concerns can provoke increasing emotional, social, and eating-related problems. The aims of this five-wave (2.5-year), multiple-informant longitudinal study were to (a) examine growth trajectories of appearance anxiety symptoms and appearance esteem, (b) identify whether trajectories differed by gender, and (c) examine several launching factors including parent-reported physical maturation, peer-rated physical appearance, body mass index, and appearance teasing by parents and peers. Participants were 387 adolescents (44% boys) aged 10 to 13 years at the first assessment. Steep growth in appearance anxiety symptoms was found for both girls and boys, but there was no average change in appearance esteem. Girls had more elevated appearance anxiety symptoms and lower appearance esteem than boys, girls' body mass index was associated with symptoms, and earlier physical maturation and teasing about appearance, alone and in combination, were associated with growth in appearance anxiety symptoms for girls and boys. Earlier maturing boys who were highly teased by parents, but even more so when teased by peers, were at utmost risk for elevated appearance anxiety symptoms and increasing symptoms over time. In contrast, all girls exhibited elevated or increasing appearance anxiety symptoms across time, with the exception of girls with the latest maturation who also reported little teasing about their appearance.

Délinquance des adolescents et maturation pubertaire analysées au travers du timing pubertaire perçu

The impact of pubertal development on the psychological and social functioning of the teenager arouses a particular interest; the most recent research shows the existence of complex relationships between pubertal development and the manifestation of internalized and externalized disorders. Two predominant hypotheses are used for explaining influence of pubertal timing on problem behaviors: the maturational deviance theory and the stage termination (early timing) theory. The deviance theory claims that the borderline or abnormal pubertal timing, whether early or late, causes difficulties for adolescent adaptation. The early timing theory suggests that early pubertal timing and the consequent early physical maturation put adolescents at greater risk of adjustment problems because early pubertal maturation interferes with normal progression through the developmental tasks of adolescence. Our study is interested specifically in the links between delinquency during adolescence and pubertal maturation in a population of 141 boys aged between 12 and 18. We measured the pubertal variable starting from the perceived pubertal timing (PPT), which evaluates the teenagers’ perception of their pubertal maturation, compared with that of their peers, to understand its impact on various dimensions of the functioning of teenagers: the self-perception (scale of Harter), aggressiveness (scale of Buss and Perry), association with peers and self-reported delinquency (attacks on property and individuals). We began with univariate analyses in order to determine the variables associated with early or late pubertal timing through comparison of scores obtained in those subjects with reference to average maturers. Subsequently, multivariate analyses were used in an attempt to sort out which among the studied factors could be predictor or a determinant of delinquency in relation to pubertal timing. Therefore, stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed. Statistical analyses were run with the SAS software, version 9.1. Our results support the thesis of precocity, the teenagers with an advanced PPT present score of delinquency and aggressiveness significantly higher than teenagers with a standard PPT. However, the sub-group of teenagers with delayed PPT present raw scores of self-revealed delinquency, which are higher than those of teenagers with a standard PPT. These teenagers can be characterized by a significantly higher hostility than the teenagers with a standard PPT. This cognitive dimension of aggressiveness, as evaluated by Buss and Perry, characterizes the functioning of the teenagers with the delayed PPT, who also present poorer self-esteem and dissatisfaction with their physical appearance. On the basis of this assessment, an analysis of multiple regression within each type of PPT aimed at identifying the variables likely to explain the delinquency of teenagers according to their PPT. The results show that the physical factor of aggressiveness is common to the three types of PPT. It is associated with the affiliation with delinquent peers for those teenagers with advanced and normal PPT, whereas for those teenagers with delayed PPT, it interacts with the factor of hostility, which is specific to them. Association with delinquent peers recognized as a major risk factor and predictive for the self-revealed delinquency of teenagers in general does not intervene for these boys who perceive their pubertal development late, compared to the others. The delinquency of teenagers with a delayed PPT cannot be explained by the factors that are considered in the general population, their social functioning and the socialization of these teenagers with delayed puberty is different from that of the other teenagers, as is their implication in delinquency, which is not explained by a kind of socialization with delinquent peers. These results confirm the importance of integrating the puberty variable into research on delinquency, but also at the level of intervention.

Linking Childhood Maltreatment with Girls' Internalizing Symptoms: Early Puberty as a Tipping Point.

Early pubertal timing in girls is one of the most frequently replicated antecedents of adolescent emotional distress. Yet understanding the impact of pubertal timing in psychosocial development has presented something of a conundrum for developmentalists, as earlier physical maturation may often be preceded by a range of early adversities and life stressors. The present paper disentangles these associations by investigating childhood maltreatment, adolescent internalizing symptoms, and perceived pubertal timing in girls who were residing in foster care at study entry (N = 100, M = 11.54 years old at Time 1). Girls were assessed at two time points two years apart. There were no significant direct effects of maltreatment on internalizing symptoms; rather, childhood sexual abuse predicted earlier perceived pubertal development at study onset which, in turn, was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptomatology. These higher levels of internalizing symptoms persisted over the two years of the study. This distinctive role for early pubertal timing - even within a sample subject to stressors and risks which far exceed the developmental norm - confirms the unique salience of pubertal timing in emotional adjustment, and suggests that the heightened sexual circumstances of puberty may be especially disturbing for girls whose lives have already been traumatically disrupted by inappropriate and unwanted sexual experiences.

Early physical maturation of female common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus in the eastern Levantine Basin

Regional resource limitation in the eastern Levantine Basin was predicted to protract the growth of members of the Israeli sub-population of the common bottlenose dolphin (CBD), compared to CBD sub-populations of similar adult size. Growth curves were fitted to length-at-age data available for 24 male and 26 female CBD stranded or incidentally caught along the Israeli coastline between 2000 and 2009. The obtained model growth constants were compared to those of other CBD sub-populations from the southeastern coast of the United States and a correlation to regional seawater primary productivity was sought. As in other sub-populations, local CBD females initially grow faster than males for approximately 3–4 years and remain longer until around eight years old, after which males surpass them in length. Yet the steep early growth of females as well as its high rate of decay was found to be extreme compared to other CBD sub-populations, with 99% of the asymptotic length being reached at the age of six years. A positive correlation between seawater primary productivity and early growth rate as well as growth decay constants could be demonstrated for CBD males from Texas, Florida and Israeli coasts. Females of the same sub-population presented a non-monotonic relationship to primary productivity. Early female attainment of physical maturity in an ultra-oligotrophic region was unpredicted and is not readily explained. It may accompany early reproductive maturation, selected for as partial compensation for lower lifelong reproductive success.

Generation of Interpersonal Stressful Events

This study developed two specifications of the social skills deficit stress generation hypothesis: the “gender-incongruence” hypothesis to predict peer victimization and the “need for autonomy” hypothesis to predict conflict with authorities. These hypotheses were tested in a prospective large population cohort of 2,064 Dutch young adolescents. Social skills and pubertal timing were measured when the sample was about 11 years old, and stressful life events were measured 2.5 years later at follow-up. As predicted by the gender-incongruence hypothesis, poor assertion in boys and poor self-control in girls were associated with peer victimization. Consistent with the need for autonomy hypothesis, poor self-control was associated with conflict with authorities, in both boys and girls. Furthermore, early physical maturation exacerbated the effect of poor self-control on conflict with authorities for both genders. These specific associations provide more insights in the pathways that result in the experience of interpersonal stressors in young adolescents.

Childhood nutrition and later fertility: pathways through education and pre-pregnant nutritional status.

Better childhood nutrition is associated with earlier physical maturation during adolescence and increased schooling attainment. However, as earlier onset of puberty and increased schooling can have opposing effects on fertility, the net effect of improvements in childhood nutrition on a woman's fertility are uncertain. Using path analysis, we estimate the strength of the pathways between childhood growth and subsequent fertility outcomes in Guatemalan women studied prospectively since birth. Height for age z score at 24 months was positively related to body mass index (BMI kg/m2) and height (cm) in adolescence and to schooling attainment. BMI was negatively associated (-0.23 +/- 0.09 years per kg/m2; p < .05) and schooling was positively associated (0.38 +/- 0.06 years per grade; p < .001) with age at first birth. Total associations with the number of children born were positive from BMI (0.07 +/- 0.02 per kg/m2; p < .05) and negative from schooling (-0.18 +/- 0.02 per grade; p < .01). Height was not related to age at first birth or the number of children born. Taken together, childhood nutrition, as reflected by height at 2 years, was positively associated with delayed age at first birth and fewer children born. If schooling is available for girls, increased growth during childhood will most likely result in a net decrease infertility.

Capabilities Approach to Youth Rights in East Africa

Early physical maturity and delayed social maturity, created by the Industrial Revolution, make youth a vulnerable group. Governments, including those of East Africa, attempt to respond to this situation in their National Youth Policies. However, these policies remain weak and uncommitted to youth rights. The capabilities approach, pioneered by Amartya Sen and developed by Martha Nussbaum, challenges the naivety of debates on human rights by calling for affirmative action. In the light of the capabilities approach, this article critically examines the existing National Youth Policies of the three countries of East Africa—Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It suggests certain elements that need to be added to youth capabilities in the African context.

Pubertal maturation and early substance use risks among African American children.

Using 2 waves of longitudinal data collected from approximately 870 African American adolescents, this study examined (a) changes in early risk factors for substance use during transition to early adolescence, including perceived prototypes of substance-using peers, willingness and intention to use substances, number of substance-using peers, and youths' own actual substance use; (b) the relationship between pubertal timing and these substance use risks; and (c) the interaction between pubertal timing and peer substance use in predicting the risks. Results showed that, first, risks for substance use increased, particularly among girls, during the transition to early adolescence. Children's prototypic images of substance users became increasingly favorable during this transitional period; a greater number of them were willing and intended to use substances during the transition to early adolescence; and an increased number of early adolescents and their friends began to use substances. Second, these changes were significantly more likely to occur among early maturing girls. Third, early physical maturation interacted with peer substance use to affect these changes.

Perceived Physical Maturity, Age of Romantic Partner, and Adolescent Risk Behavior

Early pubertal timing and advanced physical maturity for age confer elevated risk for problem behaviors for both boys and girls. However, examinations of possible biological and social mediators have been limited. Using more than 4,000 adolescents under age 15 who participated in Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examined the relationship between perceived physical maturity and membership in risk behavior clusters, and tested whether having a romantic partner mediates the maturity/risk behavior relationship. Results of multinomial regression models indicated that for both boys and girls, advanced physical maturity was associated with membership in higher risk clusters, and that having a romantic partner plays an important mediating role in this association. For females, the additional impact of having an older partner, versus any partner at all, was substantial and particularly important for the highest risk clusters. The role of partner age could not be tested for males. Because romantic partners elevate risk for young adolescent males and females, there is a need to identify and understand facets and developmental functions of adolescent romantic relationships that play a role in substance use and sexual decisions.

Early maturation as a risk factor for aggression and delinquency in adolescent girls: a review

Early physical maturation has long been considered a risk factor for the development of delinquent girls. The basis of this relationship has not been fully explored or understood. This review summarises the current literature and research on early physical maturation in adolescent females and places it within a developmental perspective. The process of early physical maturation is also placed within a biopsychosocial model so that risk and protective factors arising from the biological, social, family, education and peer environments can be ascertained. A complex model of maturation and environmental-social interaction is constructed and currently supported by research, but it is clear that a great deal of further work is necessary to fully understand this process.

Divorce and the Adjustment of Children

Divorce and the Adjustment of Children

It's about timing and change: pubertal transition effects on symptoms of major depression among African American youths.

Effects of early physical maturation and accelerated pubertal changes on symptoms of major depression were examined in 639 African American children. Three rival hypotheses, early timing, off-time, and stressful change, were tested using 2 waves of data (mean ages = 11 and 13 years). The pubertal effect operates differently according to children's gender and age. For girls, early maturation was consistently associated with elevated levels of depressive symptoms. For boys, early maturers manifested elevated levels of depression only at age 11, but these symptoms subsided by age 13. Boys who experienced accelerated pubertal growth over time displayed elevated symptom levels. Results support the early timing hypothesis for girls and the stressful change hypothesis for boys. Time at assessment is critical when examining boys' pubertal transition.

''WHAT'S A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?'': PATHWAYS TO A CAREER IN STRIPPING

Despite growing popularity, American culture continues to look down on exotic dancing as a deviant, somewhat disreputable occupation. Dancers are often categorized with drug addicts, prostitutes, exhibitionists, sex addicts, and deviants of all types and are often referred to as sluts, whores, sleazes, and druggies. Alienation from reputable society is often the result of such a labeling of people associated with, or who participate in, the stripping industry. This study provides an examination of personal and background characteristics of women in the stripping industry, focusing on early sexual experiences, physical maturation, family-of-origin structure, educational and occupational achievement, and prior experiences in entertainment and athletics, as well as abuse and low self-esteem during childhood.

Body image, social comparison, and eating disturbance: A covariance structure modeling investigation

Objective To evaluate the role of appearance-based social comparison processes as a possible mediational link between developmental factors (negative social feedback, i.e., teasing about appearance; biological status, i.e.,early physical maturation) and levels of body dissatisfaction, eating disturbance, and global psychological functioning. Method In this study of 173 female undergraduates, covariance structure modeling (CSM) was used to examine direct and mediational relationships among these variables. Results Appearance-based social comparison mediated the effect of appearance-related teasing on body image and eating disturbance; body image mediated the effect of teasing on eating disturbance; eating disturbance had a direct effect on overall psychological functioning. Discussion Implications for devising and testing other theoretical models are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 26: 43–51, 1999.