Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2012 Jun;41(6):677-90. doi: 10.1007/s10964-011-9687-x. Epub 2011 Jun 25.
The relative nature of pubertal timing has received little attention in research linking early pubertal development with psychological adjustment. The current study examines the dynamic association between pubertal timing and internalizing symptoms among an urban, ethnically diverse sample of girls (n=1,167; 50% Latina, 30% Black/African American, 11% Asian, 9% White). By relying on six waves of data, we detected substantial within-person variability in pubertal timing, which in turn related to fluctuations in depressive symptoms, global self-worth, and social anxiety in multilevel analyses. Within-person changes in the direction of more advanced development compared to peers consistently predicted more depressive symptoms; however, more advanced development was related to lower self-worth only at the beginning of middle school. By the end of middle school, less advanced development predicted social anxiety. Results challenge the notion that pubertal timing is a stable individual characteristic, with implications for studying the psychosocial correlates of pubertal development across multiple years.
青春期启动的相对性质在将早期青春期发育与心理适应相关联的研究中很少受到关注。本研究在一个城市、种族多样化的女孩样本（n=1167；50%拉丁裔，30%黑/非裔美国人，11%亚裔，9%白人）中检验了青春期启动与内化症状之间的动态关联。通过依赖六波数据，我们在个体内检测到青春期启动的大量可变性，这反过来又与多层次分析中的抑郁症状、总体自我价值和社会焦虑的波动有关。与同龄人相比，在个体内朝着更先进的发育方向的变化始终预示着更多的抑郁症状；然而，只有在初中开始时，更先进的发育才与较低的自我价值有关。到初中结束时，发育迟缓预示着社会焦虑。研究结果对青春期启动是一个稳定的个体特征的观点提出了挑战，对在多年内研究青春期发育的社会心理相关性具有重要意义。
