Abstract
Early pubertal timing has been associated with increased alcohol use, drunkenness, and alcohol use disorders in both boys and girls during adolescence. It is not clear, however, whether the effect of early pubertal timing persists into late adolescence and young adulthood, whether its effect differs by gender, and if contextual factors (e.g., peer alcohol use) amplify such effect. This study attempts to address these questions by examining the trajectories of alcohol use and heavy drinking from early adolescence to young adulthood in males and females using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results show that for both males and females, early pubertal timing was associated with higher alcohol use and heavy drinking trajectories. These effects persisted into young adulthood and were found to be stronger for males than for females. Moreover, there was a significant interaction effect between friends’ drinking and pubertal timing on alcohol use and heavy drinking trajectories; but the interaction effect also differed for males and females. These findings suggest that early pubertal timing is a risk factor for alcohol use and has long-term implication for individuals’ health.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson ER (1993) Analyzing change in short-term longitudinal research using cohort-sequential designs. J Consult Clin Psychol 61:929–940
Andersson T, Magnusson D (1990) Biological maturation in adolescence and the development of drinking habits and alcohol-abuse among young males-a prospective longitudinal study. J Youth Adolesc 19(1):33–41
Aro H, Taipale V (1987) The impact of timing of puberty on psychosomatic symptoms among 14-Year-old to 16-Year-old Finnish Girls. Child Dev 58(1):261–268
Ary DV, Tildesley E, Hops H, Andrews J (1993) The influence of parent, sibling, and peer modeling and attitudes on adolescent use of alcohol. Int J Addict 28(9):853–880
Bell RQ (1953) Convergence: an accelerated longitudinal approach. Child Dev 24:145–152
Brooks-Gunn J, Warren MP (1989) Biological and social contributions to negative affect in young adolescent girls. Child Dev 60(1):40–55
Brooks-Gunn J, Warren MP, Rosso J, Garniulo J (1987) Validity of self-report measures of girls’ pubertal status. Child Dev 58:829–841
Caspi A, Lynam D, Moffitt TE, Silva PA (1993) Unraveling girls delinquency - biological, dispositional, and contextual contributions to adolescent misbehavior. Dev Psychol 29(1):19–30
Caspi A, Moffitt TE (1991) Individual differences are accentuated during periods of social change: The sample case of girls at puberty. J Pers Soc Psychol 61(1):157–168
Chantala K, Kalsbeek WD, Andraca E (2004) Non-response in Wave III of the Add Health Study. [WWW document], from URL: http://www.cpc.nuc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/using/guides
Chantala K, Tabor J (1999) Strategies to perform a design-based analysis using the Add Health data. [WWW document], from URL: http://www.cpc.nuc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/using/guides
Colder CR, Chassin L (1999) The psychosocial characteristics of alcohol users versus problem users: Data from a study of adolescents at risk. Dev Psychopathol 11(2):321–348
Curran PJ, Stice E, Chassin L (1997) The relation between adolescent alcohol use and peer alcohol use: A longitudinal random coefficients model. J Consult Clin Psychol 65(1):130–140
Dick DM, Rose RJ, Pulkkinen L, Kaprio J (2001) Measuring puberty and understanding its impact: A longitudinal study of adolescent twins. J Youth Adolesc 30(4):385–399
Dick DM, Rose RJ, Viken RJ, Kaprio J (2000) Pubertal timing and substance use: Associations between and within families across late adolescence. Dev Psychol 36(2):180–189
Duncan SC, Duncan TE, Hops H (1996) Analysis of longitudinal data within accelerated longitudinal designs. Psychol Methods 1(3):236–248
Eichorn DE (1975) Asynchronizations in Adolescent Development. In: Dragastin SE, Elder GH Jr (eds) Adolescence in the life-cycle: psychological change and the social context. Hemisphere, pp. 81–96
Ge XJ, Brody GH, Conger RD, Simons RL, Murry VM (2002) Contextual amplification of pubertal transition effects on deviant peer affiliation and externalizing behavior among African American children. Dev Psychol 38(1):42–54
Ge XJ, Conger RD, Elder GH Jr (1996) Coming of age too early: Pubertal influences on girls’ vulnerability to psychological distress. Child Dev 67(6):3386–3400
Ge XJ, Elder GH, Regnerus M, Cox C (2001) Pubertal transitions, perceptions of being overweight, and adolescents’ psychological maladjustment: Gender and ethnic differences. Soc Psychol Q 64(4):363–375
Ge XJ, Kim IJ, Brody GH, Conger RD, Simons RL, Gibbons FX et al (2003) It’s about timing and change: Pubertal transition effects on symptoms of major depression among African American youths. Dev Psychol 39(3):430–439
Graber JA, Petersen AC, Brooks-Gunn J (1996) Pubertal processes: Methods, measures, and models. In: Graber JA, Brooks-Gunn J, Petersen AC (eds) Transitions through adolescence: Interpersonal domains and context. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ
Graber JA, Lewinsohn PM, Seeley JR, Brooks-Gunn J (1997) Is psychopathology associated with the timing of pubertal development? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36(12):1768–1776
Graber JA, Seeley JR, Brooks-Gunn J, Lewinsohn PM (2004) Is pubertal timing associated with psychopathology in young adulthood? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43(6):718–726
Harris KM, Florey F, Tabor J, Bearman PS, Jones J, Udry JR (2003) The national longitudinal study of adolescent health: Research design [WWW document], from URL: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design
Haynie DL (2003) Contexts of risk? Explaining the link between girls’ pubertal development and their delinquency involvement. Soc Forces 82(1):355–397
Hill JP, Lynch ME (1983) The intensification of gender-related role expectations during early adolescence. In Brooks-Gunn J, Petersen AC (eds) Girls at puberty: Biological and psychological perspectives. Plenum, New York
Lanza ST, Collins LM (2002) Pubertal timing and the onset of substance use in females during early adolescence. Prev Sci 3(1):69–82
Littell RC, Milliken GA, Stroup WW, Wolfinger RD (1996) SAS system for mixed models. SAS Institute, Cary, NC
Magnusson D, Stattin HK, Allen VL (1985) Biological maturation and social development: A longitudinal study of some adjustment processes from mid-adolescence to adulthood. J Youth Adolesc 14(4):267–283
Magnusson D (1988) Individual development in an interactional perspective. In: Magnusson D (ed) Paths through life (Vol. 1). Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ
Miyazaki Y, Raudenbush SW (2000) Tests for linkage of multiple cohorts in an accelerated longitudinal design. Psychol Methods 5:44–63
Moffitt TE, Caspi A, Rutter M, Silva P (2001) Sex differences in antisocial behavior: Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the dunedin longitudinal study. Cambridge University Press
National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2004) Reducing underage drinking: A collective responsibility. The national academies press: Board of children, youth, and families, division of behavioral and social sciences and education, Washington, DC
Nesselroade JR, Baltes PB (1979) Longitudinal research in the study of behavior and development. Academic Press, San Diego, CA
Patton GC, McMorris BJ, Toumbourou JW, Hemphill SA, Donath S, Catalano RF (2004) Puberty and the onset of substance use and abuse. Pediatrics 114(3):E300–E306
Raudenbush SW, Bryk AS (2002) Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd edn). Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks
Rose RJ, Dick DM, Viken RJ, Pulkkinen L, Kaprio J (2001) Drinking or abstaining at age 14? A genetic epidemiological study. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 25(11):1594–1604
Schaie KW (1965) General model for the study of developmental problems. Psychol Bull 64:92–107
Sieving RE, Perry CL, Williams CL (2000) Do friendships change behaviors, or do behaviors change friendships? Examining paths of influence in young adolescents’ alcohol use. J Adolesc Health 26(1):27–35
Silbereisen RK, Kracke B (1993) Variation in maturational timing and adjustment in adolescence. In Jackson S, Rodriguez-Tome H (eds) Adolescence and its social worlds. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ
Simmons RG, Blyth DA (1987) Moving into adolescence: The impact of pubertal change and school context. Aldine, Hawthorne, NY
Singer JD (1998) Using SAS PROC MIXED to fit multilevel models, hierarchical models, and individual growth models. J Educ Behav Stat 23:323–355
Singer JD, Willett JB (2003) Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. Oxford University Press, New York
Stattin H, Magnusson D (1990) Pubertal maturation in female development. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ
Stice E, Barrera M, Chassin L (1998) Prospective differential prediction of adolescent alcohol use and problem use: Examining the mechanisms of effect. J Abnorm Psychol 107(4):616–628
Weichold K, Silbereisen RK, Schmitt-Rodermund E (2003) Short-term and long-term consequences of early versus late physical maturation in adolescents. In: Hayward C (ed) Gender differences at puberty. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Wichstrom L (2001) The impact of pubertal timing on adolescents’ alcohol use. J Res Adolesc 11(2):131–150
Wiesner M, Ittel A (2002) Relations of pubertal timing and depressive symptoms to substance use in early adolescence. J Early Adolesc 22(1):5–23
Wilson DM, Killen JD, Hayward C, Robinson TN, Hammer LD, Kraemer HC et al (1994) Timing and rate of sexual-maturation and the onset of cigarette and alcohol-use among teenage girls. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 148(8):789–795
Acknowledgments
This research uses data from the Add Health, a project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris. The Add Health was funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies including the National Cancer Institute; the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; the National Institute of Mental Health; the National Institute of Nursing Research; the Office of AIDS Research, NIH; the Office of Behavior and Social Science Research, NIH; the Office of the Director, NIH; the Office of Research on Women’s Health, NIH; the Office of Population Affairs, DHHS; the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS; the Office of Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Office of Minority Health, Office of Public Health and Science, DHHS; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, DHHS; and the National Science Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Michael Biehl’s research focuses on adolescent development and problem behaviors. He is particularly interested in developmental pathways leading to substance use and affective disorders and how different contexts influence these developmental pathways.
Misaki Natsuaki is interested in how adolescent problem behavior changes over time. Her research focuses particularly on the effects and timing of transitional events, such as puberty, on trajectories of internalizing and externalizing behaviors in adolescence.
Xiaojia Ge’s research focuses on interaction effects of biological and social contextual factors on socioemotional development. He is particularly interested in how pubertal timing affects adolescent development.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Biehl, M.C., Natsuaki, M.N. & Ge, X. The Influence of Pubertal Timing on Alcohol Use and Heavy Drinking Trajectories. J Youth Adolescence 36, 153–167 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9120-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9120-z