The Pace of Puberty Matters

There's been a lot of research about the psychological and social impact of early onset or late onset puberty in both males and females. But researchers are now looking into the emotional and psychological impact of the pace at which physical puberty occurs. Here's some of the highlights of what they learned:

A provocative new research reports suggests that children who speed through puberty are more likely to act out and to suffer from anxiety and depression.---Why does going through puberty at a faster rate relate to external behavior problems and internal anxiety and depression?“The thought is that when the major changes of puberty are compressed into a shorter amount of time, adolescents don’t have enough time to acclimate, so they’re not emotionally or socially ready for all the changes that happen,” said Marceau.“This is the explanation that originally was attributed solely to early timing, but we suggest that the same thing also is happening if the rate of puberty is compressed.”Read the rest at PsychCentral

Have you seen this with any of your students?