The present investigation examines mediated pathways from pubertal development to changes in depressive affect and aggression. Participants were 100 white girls who were between the ages of 10 and 14 (M=12.13, SD=.80); girls were from well-educated, middle- to upper-middle class families, and attended private schools in a major northeastern urban area. Three aspects of pubertal development were examined: (a) estradiol categories tapping gonadal maturation; (b) dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels indicating adrenal maturation; and (c) pubertal timing (early vs. other). Three potential mediators were also examined: emotional arousal, attention difficulties, and negative life events. Tests of mediated models indicated that early pubertal timing predicted higher emotional arousal which subsequently predicted increased depressive affect. Negative life events, and possibly attention difficulties, mediated the associations of both estradiol category and DHEAS with aggression. These findings highlight the potential for more intensive investigation of gonadal and adrenal processes in explaining affective changes at puberty.
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Notes
Detailed menstrual histories were collected for these girls. Every attempt was made to account for time in cycle in the original collection of the data (Warren and Brooks-Gunn, 1989). It should be noted that eliminating postmenarcheal girls from analyses eliminated the investigation of pubertal timing by reducing the early maturing group to n=5. Also, DHEAS did not differ by menarcheal status and estradiol category is designed to account for it such that these girls are in the highest stage. As such, menarcheal girls were included in the analyses.
Although analyses collapses estradiol Stages 1 and 4, these groups contain girls who are quite different in their pubertal development. Hence, we also ran these models deleting the Stage 4 girls (many of whom were postmenarcheal) from the analyses. The models for estradiol category were virtually identical with and without these girls. For the purposes of clarity, analyses are reported for the full sample of girls.
The rates of delinquency as measured by the YSR were very low in our sample (results available from the authors). The mediated models were tested with the Delinquency subscale of the YSR; results paralleled those for aggression. As such, these analyses are not included as they were redundant.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research reported in this paper was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the W.T. Grant Foundation. Additionally, we wish to thank all of those who contributed their time and energy to the Adolescent Study Program: J. Gargiulo, D. Friedman, L. Ferrington, and M. Samelson for data collection; the schools; and, especially, the adolescent girls and their families for participating in the study.
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Julia Graber, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Penn State University. Her major research interests are the development of psychopathology during adolescence, the impact of puberty on adjustment, and developmental pathways for health promoting and compromising behaviors.
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, PhD, is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. She received her PhD in Human Learning and Development from the University of Pennsylvania. Her major research interests are policy-oriented research focusing on the development of children, youth and families, and transitional periods during childhood and adolescence, focusing on school, family and biological transitions in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
Michelle Warren, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medical Director, Center for Menopause, Hormonal Disorders, and Women’s Health at Columbia University Medical Center. She received her M.D. from Cornell University Medical School. Her research interests are on women’s health and bidirectional associations between endocrine functioning and mental health and health-compromising behaviors
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Graber, J.A., Brooks-Gunn, J. & Warren, M.P. Pubertal Effects on Adjustment in Girls: Moving from Demonstrating Effects to Identifying Pathways. J Youth Adolescence 35, 391–401 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9049-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9049-2