Influence of the developmental schedule of puberty on learning and ego functioning.

Developmental schedules refer to temporal factors of pubertal processes as they might bear on ego development. The longitudinal research reviewed here from the 30-year archives of the Guidance Study of the Institute of Human Development pertains to the effects of varying lengths of the prepubertal and pubertal period on the short-term and enduring integration of drive states initiated at puberty. The personality correlates of varying lengths of these periods serve as vehicle for establishing properties of these stages as well as of the transition between them. The different ways the sexes respond to the early onset of puberty, as reported here, may provide an important microcosm for understanding normative sex differences in the general regulation of drive states.