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Early Pubertal Timing and Girls’ Problem Behavior: Integrating Two Hypotheses

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Abstract

Girls’ early pubertal timing has been linked in many studies to behavioral problems such as delinquency and substance use. The theoretical explanations for these links have often involved the girls’ peer relationships, but contexts have also been considered important in some explanations. By integrating two theoretical models, the peer-socialization and the contextual-amplification hypotheses, we propose a contextual framework for explaining the link between early pubertal timing and external problem behavior in girls. We hypothesize that early developing girls engage in unhealthy, dangerous, and risky behavior under contextual conditions that promote access to older friends and opposite-sex relationships. Under other conditions it is less likely. We tested this integrated hypothesis in two studies conducted in Sweden. The first was a cross-sectional study with information about school and free-time friends in a community sample (N = 284). Early pubertal timing was linked to having older, more normbreaking friends outside of school, but not in school, thus suggesting that the school context interferes early-developing girls’ selection of older peers. The second study involved both a longitudinal (N = 434) and a cross-sectional sample of girls (N = 634), where we examined a leisure setting that is known to attract delinquent youth. Results showed that early pubertal timing was most strongly linked to delinquency for girls who spent time in this context and were heavily involved with boys and peers. In sum, results from both studies supported our predictions that certain contexts would amplify the peer-socialization effect. Overall, we conclude that the integrated peer-socialization/contextual-amplification model satisfactorily explains the link between pubertal timing and external problem behavior.

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Acknowledgments

Work on this study was supported by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. Support for the cross-sectional and longitudinal projects used in the study came from the Swedish Research Council and The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The data from the 1998 cohort used in Study II are from a study financed by grants to Håkan Stattin and Margaret Kerr from the Swedish Reserch Council and The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The 10-to-18 Study, used in Study I, was financed by grants to Margaret Kerr and Håkan Stattin from the Swedish Research Council. Some of the data are from the longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA). Responsible for the program is Professor Lars R. Bergman. Responsible for the planning, implementation, and financing of the collection of data was Professor David Magnusson. We thank Lauree Tilton-Weaver and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version.

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  1. Center for Developmental Research, Academy of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, JPS: Psychology, Örebro University, 701 82, Örebro, Sweden

    Håkan Stattin, Margaret Kerr & Therése Skoog

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  1. Håkan Stattin
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Correspondence to Håkan Stattin.

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Stattin, H., Kerr, M. & Skoog, T. Early Pubertal Timing and Girls’ Problem Behavior: Integrating Two Hypotheses. J Youth Adolescence 40, 1271–1287 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9696-9

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