YouthEmpowerment2008: marzo 2008

Science 30 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5782, pp. 1902 - 1905
DOI: 10.1126/science.1127489

Perspective
Studying Adolescence
Linda M. Richter

Young people in their teens constitute the largest age group in the world, in a special stage recognized across the globe as the link in the life cycle between childhood and adulthood. Longitudinal studies in both developed and developing countries and better measurements of adolescent behavior are producing new insights. The physical and psychosocial changes that occur during puberty make manifest generational and early-childhood risks to development, in the form of individual differences in aspects such as growth, educational attainment, self-esteem, peer influences, and closeness to family. They also anticipate threats to adult health and well-being. Multidisciplinary approaches, especially links between the biological and the social sciences, as well as studies of socioeconomic and cultural diversity and determinants of positive outcomes, are needed to advance knowledge about this stage of development.

Child, Youth, Family, and Social Development, Human Sciences Research Council, Private Bag X07, Dalbridge 4014, South Africa, and University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Title: Pubertal maturation and African American children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Author(s):Xiaojia Ge, Gene H. Brody, Rand D. Conger and Ronald L. Simons.
Source: 35.4 (August 2006): p531(10).

INTRODUCTION
The puberty-behavior link has long been a focus of developmental research (Jones, 1965; Jones and Bayley, 1950, 1971; Jones and Mussen, 1957; Petersen and Taylor, 1980). As a developmental stage, the transition to adolescence exposes youths to a widening array of social and environmental stressors compared to the relatively stress-free childhood. Early-maturing adolescents, compared to their on-time and late-maturing peers, are more likely to be involved in problem behaviors such as minor delinquency, truancy, and school-related disruptive behaviors (Caspi and Moffitt, 1991; Duncan et al., 1985; Felson and Haynie, 2002; Haynie, 2001; Ge et al., 2002). They are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as drug or alcohol use (Andersson and Magnusson, 1990; Deardorff et al., 2005; Dick et al., 2000; Hayward and Sanborn, 2002; Lanza and Collins, 2002; Wichstrom, 2001; Wiesner and Ittel, 2002) and to show signs of emotional problems (Brooks-Gunn and Warren, 1989; Ge et al., 1996, 2001a, 2001b; Graber et al., 1997, 2004). These studies, however, have been conducted almost exclusively with adolescents of European descent (see Alsaker, 1996; Connolly et al., 1996; Graber et al., 1996 for reviews). Little systematic information is available on the contribution of the pubertal maturation to the internalizing and externalizing problems among African-American youngsters.
The present study was designed to examine the relationship of pubertal maturation with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a large sample of African-American children. Although their relative importance is presently uncertain, both pubertal status and pubertal timing have been implicated in the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in several large-scale psychiatric epidemiological studies (e.g., Angold et al., 1998; Graber et al., 1997, 2004). Pubertal status refers to the level of physical maturation or development an individual has reached. Pubertal timing, on the other hand, is a relative term indicating whether an individual's physical development occurs earlier, at the same time, or later compared to his or her same-sex, same-age adolescent peers (Graber et al., 1996). Because pubertal status and pubertal timing are intimately confounded, it has often proven difficult to separate their effects in adolescence (Steinberg, 1987). This is particularly true when study sample involves a group of early adolescents who are close in chronological age. In this study, we examined the effect of both pubertal status and pubertal timing. Drawing upon Angold et al. (1998) and Graber et al. (1997, 2004), the major hypothesis examined in this study was whether pubertal status and pubertal timing were associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms among African-American children.
Puberty-Maladjustment Connection Across Gender
Although early maturation apparently is a significant risk factor for psychosocial maladjustment in adolescent girls (Alsaker, 1996; Connally et al., 1996; Graber et al., 1996), the relationship between pubertal timing and emotional or behavioral problems among boys is not as clear. Whereas the original results of the Oakland growth study suggested positive effects of early maturation on boys' development, especially in social domains such as prestige and leadership (Jones and Bayley, 1950; Jones, 1965), an analysis of the data from the Berkeley guidance study by Peskin (1967) found that early-maturing boys may have more mood problems than indicated by earlier research. Several more recent studies indicated that early-maturing boys were more likely to be involved in deviant activities, including minor delinquency, truancy, and problems at school (Duncan et al., 1985), and to engage in high-risk behaviors such as drug or alcohol use (Andersson and Magnusson, 1990) than were later-maturing boys. Evidence emerged from other studies have associated boys' early maturation with a broad constellation of psychosocial maladjustments (Ge et al., 2001; Graber et al., 1997; Susman et al., 1991). From her extensive review of the relevant data, Alsaker (1996) suggested that the conclusion that early maturation is favorable for boys must be revised. Based on these findings, we predicted that early maturation would be associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms for both boys and girls.