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Pubertal Timing and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents: The Roles of Romantic Competence and Romantic Experiences

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Abstract

In spite of the large literature supporting the link between early pubertal timing and depression in adolescent girls, there are some exceptions. This suggests that there may be factors that interact with pubertal timing, increasing risk for depression in some girls, but not others. This study examined two such factors, romantic competence and romantic experiences, and their role in the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms among 83 early adolescent females (89% Caucasian). For on-time maturing girls (but not for early- or late-), lower levels of competence were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms concurrently, but not longitudinally. In addition, for on-time maturing girls, more romantic experiences were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms both concurrently and longitudinally. The discussion focused on the need for greater conceptual and empirical clarity regarding the pubertal timing-depression association and its potential moderators.

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Notes

  1. To ensure that an adequate amount of girls with depressive symptoms would participate, parents of girls with higher (22+) questionnaire study CES-D scores were contacted first; however, ultimately all parents of female questionnaire participants were contacted. There were no significant differences between girls recruited from the questionnaire study and from the school newsletter on T1 depressive symptoms, pubertal timing, romantic competence, family income, or ethnicity. Girls recruited from the questionnaire study had significantly more T1 relationship experiences (M = 23.73, SD = 4.98 versus M = 19.71, SD = 3.46; t(79) = 3.14, p < .05), most likely because depressive symptoms and relationship experiences were highly correlated.

  2. In Petersen’s original article (Petersen et al. 1988), alpha coefficients ranged from .68 to .83 (mean = .77). In other studies using the PDS, alpha coefficients varied. Some report above .70 or .75 (Ge et al. 2001, 2003), but others report lower alphas. For instance, Dick et al. (2001) reported alpha for girls at age 12 of .67 and at age 14 of .56. Alpha in this study is consistent with these lower alphas at younger ages.

  3. All interview questions in the RCI used non-biased language, using words such as ‘the person’ and ‘someone’ or giving both sexes (him or her, she or he), allowing for the possibility of same- or other-sex experiences. The MAHC is more heterosocial which is a limitation of this measure. Although we did not directly assess sexual orientation, on the RCI, the vast majority of girls spoke of heterosexual experiences, indicating that regardless of sexual orientation, the girls in this sample were familiar with the kinds of experiences assessed on the MAHC.

  4. As is common when constructs are assessed using different methods (semi-structured interview for the RCI and self-report for the MAHC), correlations may be only modest. This certainly reflects that these variables have both shared and non-shared components. However, given that they have shared components and each measures important aspects of competence, we selected to create a composite variable.

  5. Although sexual activity is a normative adolescent behavior, sexual activity is less frequent in early adolescence and thus, it is included here. For example, national statistics show that less than 4% of adolescent females engage in sexual intercourse before the age of 13 (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.). Also we know that early sexual activity, particularly sexual intercourse and casual sex, are frequently associated with poorer psychosocial functioning, including depression (e.g., Welsh et al. 2003).

  6. We examined the normative relationship experiences separately (to isolate them from non-normative experiences) because there was more variability in the normative experiences.

  7. We also ran a one-way ANOVA to compare the 3 pubertal timing groups on T2 depressive symptoms, without controlling for T1 symptoms. The ANOVA was not significant, F(2, 71) = .894, p > .05.

  8. We did not test these predicted interactions because we did not have the power to do so. Future work should address these predictions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NIMH R01 MH063904-1A2 and by funds from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. The authors would like to thank Melissa Ramsay Miller, Lisa R. Starr, Sara J. Steinberg and Athena Yoneda for their assistance with data collection, and the families who generously participated in this study.

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  1. Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, SUNY Stony Brook, NY, 11794-2500, USA

    Catherine B. Stroud & Joanne Davila

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  1. Catherine B. Stroud
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Correspondence to Catherine B. Stroud.

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Stroud, C.B., Davila, J. Pubertal Timing and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents: The Roles of Romantic Competence and Romantic Experiences. J Youth Adolescence 37, 953–966 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9292-9

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