John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, McClelland Park, 650 North Park Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0078, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2011 Feb;23(1):85-99. doi: 10.1017/S0954579410000660.
Guided by evolutionary-developmental theories of biological sensitivity to context and reproductive development, the current research examined the interactive effects of early family environments and psychobiologic reactivity to stress on the subsequent timing and tempo of puberty. As predicted by the theory, among children displaying heightened biological sensitivity to context (i.e., higher stress reactivity), higher quality parent-child relationships forecast slower initial pubertal tempo and later pubertal timing, whereas lower quality parent-child relationships forecast the opposite pattern. No such effects emerged among less context-sensitive children. Whereas sympathetic nervous system reactivity moderated the effects of parent-child relationships on both breast/genital and pubic hair development, adrenocortical activation only moderated the effect on pubic hair development. The current results build on previous research documenting what family contexts predict variation in pubertal timing by demonstrating for whom those contexts matter. In addition, the authors advance a new methodological approach for assessing pubertal tempo using piecewise growth curve analysis.
在进化发展理论的指导下，该研究考察了早期家庭环境和对压力的生物反应性对青春期发育时间和速度的后续影响。正如该理论所预测的，在对环境具有较高生物敏感性（即较高的应激反应性）的儿童中，较高质量的亲子关系预示着初始青春期速度较慢和青春期开始较晚，而较低质量的亲子关系则预示着相反的模式。在对环境敏感度较低的儿童中，没有出现这种影响。交感神经系统反应性调节了亲子关系对乳房/生殖器和阴毛发育的影响，但肾上腺皮质激活仅调节了阴毛发育的影响。目前的结果建立在先前的研究基础上，这些研究记录了家庭环境对青春期时间变化的预测，证明了这些环境对哪些人重要。此外，作者还提出了一种使用分段生长曲线分析评估青春期速度的新方法。
