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Early Puberty Often More Hazardous
An anonymous reader writes "CNN is reporting that scientists are taking a look at the social ramifications of hitting puberty early. From the article: "'There is something unique about early maturity (relative to one's peers) that opens opportunities for victimization experiences,' the study's authors write. 'It's not puberty that is what ultimately causes kids to get victimized,' study co-author Dr. Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Florida, told Reuters Health. 'Early puberty seems to open up a different set of doors and social experiences to kids,' he said, explaining that early maturing youngsters may start socializing with the opposite sex and with older, bigger, and stronger youth earlier than those who do not experience puberty early."
Here's a link to an article about the hair care products. It says the research is not conclusive, but rather suspicious. Apparently about half of all black girls in the United States start developing secondary sex characteristics before age 8 (yikes! didn't know that), while the rate is much lower for black girls in other parts of the world (e.g. Africa).
Breakfast served all day!
I was always below average in height relative to my male peers growing up. I got pubes late, I didn't have to shave until I was 17, my voice changed late, women noticed me late, guys picked on me... basically, my testosterone kicked in way later than it might have ideally and it was a real pain in the ass for me, actually. I didn't date until after high school and I didn't have sex until 21. I was surprised when women finally started noticing me because I had gotten to the point where I assumed I would stay mostly invisible.
The only yang to that yin that I can come up with is that I'm now 6'2", the guy who I was always jealous of who got laid at 12 is now 30 with a nice beer gut and half bald (and looks 38), and I have to sort of beat off the women now. I'm 33 and everyone says I look 26. At my 10 year reunion I was like the skinniest guy there. So maybe it's related to an aging-speed thing. Both my sister and I absolutely look younger than our peers now (but some of that might have to do with me living the bachelor life and trying to look good).
But damn, the cost was high. I tried playing sports with neighborhood kids growing up but invariably I would get bloodied up, which then turned me off from team sports completely (I played tennis and rode my bike instead). I'm a really social guy now (and some team sports are OK) but from 7th-10th grade I was so shellshocked that I barely had a friend and spent most of my time indoors hacking away on a computer (Microsoft Basic on a Mac Plus, lol) with my mom yelling at me to go outside (caught between a rock and a hard place).
So perhaps being any kind of outlier is more painful in general.
Ahh, I was thinking of cases where 14 year olds (or younger) get pregnant, or children who are born with STDs pass it to another.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
It's science. Social science, true, but it may be "hard" science nonetheless. I certainly have a lot of respect for one researcher in this field: Dan Olweus at the University of Bergen. He approached bullying in "hard" scientific ways, and made an anti-bullying program. In a comparison with a dozen other similar programs which teachers thought would work, his was the only one with a statistically significant effect.
This being a nerd site, I think I'm not the only one who would have benefited from this program, if my school had been responsible enough to use it instead of the junk programs. So (good) social science matters. And is stuff. QED.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
"When did our society define the age at which these acts should first occur?" Er... I'm pretty sure there are laws in most countries about the 'age of consent' - the minimum age at which sex is permitted.
I think all countries have an age of consent, it's just not always the way you think. Ours is 16, but there's an exception for those of "equal age and mental development" with no lower limit. The law is there to protect a 10yo from being exploited by adults - not to prevent them from exploring with other 10yos.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
An instructor of mine was working on a study that was related to this in a way. The premise was that a combination of diet, health factors, social factors, external stimulus were contributing to children hitting puberty earlier and earlier, with an extended period of adolescence - which made it extremely difficult for anyone to abstain from having sex. It went something like in the 20s, most people were marrying at 17 or 18, but not reaching puberty until 15 or 16. They only had to wait a couple years at most before they could start hitting it and not be a disgrace to their family. As the years progressed, the average age that people married got older, but the age they hit puberty got younger. Now, if I'm recalling correctly, the average age that an American kid begins puberty is 10, but the average age that they get married is in the mid-20s. That's over a decade of abstinence if "saving yourself for marriage" is your bag - compared to your grandparents or greatgrandparents who only had to wait a couple of years to be "respectable".