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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."
It seemed like I hit puberty way earlier than my peers. I remember in 4th or 5th grade having a deep voice (has not gotten deeper since...) and being taller than the other kids. Now everybody is about as tall as me. Contrary to the article however, I saw myself as being mature and being able to handle fights, drugs, and relationships. It's mostly just in your mind in my opinion. If you think you're bigger and better than the other kids than that's your problem (or it could be nature's way of dealing with things).
No existe.
I thought most of this was pretty obvious. Doesn't take a scientific study to figure these things out.
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Uhm, why is this appearing on a tech media blog?
When did our society define the age at which these acts should first occur?
I think the point is that self-destructive acts aren't ever supposed to occur at all.
I started growing pubic hairs around 14, voice dropped around 18 and didn't really start getting tall or facial hair till around 20.
Being really small, geeky and awkward made me a target. I would have rather been 5'10" 200lbs at 12 with a 5 o-clock shadow than at 20, would have made Jr. High and High school so much easier.
I know, I am a girl, I went through it all. :p High school wasn't hell, people became somewhat civilized (in a small sort of way) when the top grade was composed of 18 year olds instead of 13/14 year olds, but middle school was.
So in other words wanting to get laid makes you get rejected earlier.. and makes you do all the things everyone does when they hit puberty..
I know people who act like children even in their 30s and 10 year olds who act like adults. Puberty early wouldn't do anything to the later type, the first type on the other hand still act like children after hitting it.. so no, early puberty doesn't "damage you", being too immature to handle it damages you.
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Thankfully, we live in an age when sex doesn't have to lead to pregnancy unless you want it to.
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Except of course, in those places that restrict selling condoms and birth-control pills to youth.
Any big or noticable difference is going to cause problems with a bunch of kids. They have a herd mind a lot of the time. This seems like a no brainer: Puberty changes a whole beowulf cluster of things about you, and if you're the first in your peer group, then there's a significant chance that the immaturity and herd-mindedness will cause you problems. It has nothing to do with society or anything else, just peer pressure and the attitude of kids/teens.
Since when was sex a "self-destructive act?!"
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Another fluff study done almost entirely by statisticians so that they could suck up grant money and waste my tax dollars.
I think you should write the researchers and demand your $0.00001 back.
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IANAMD, but...
You're using a circular argument; age is usually an indication of physical maturity, which is what really matters when it comes down to pregancy being safe - a 14 year old mature girl will have a safer pregnancy than an 17 year old one who has just started puberty.
So if girls are getting pregnant earlier because they're maturing earlier, it doesn't necessarily make it more dangerous.
Of course, I am of the opinion that 14 is too young to have a child under almost any circumstances; regardless of physical maturity, the psycological dangers cannot be disregarded.
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So hitting puberty early makes other kids go after you, and hitting it late makes them go after you. Maybe the study should have been entitled "Children Still Being Mean To Anyone Who Is In Any Way Different."
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So what? When did our society define the age at which these acts should first occur? I must have missed that.
The reason this is being studied has a lot to do with the fact that earlier-than-normal puberty is becoming more common (due to diet changes, chemical exposure, or any number of unknown causes) and that our society just isn't adapted to it yet. It's already a concern from a public health standpoint, but it's only recently cought the interest of sociologists. Most of us know from experience that sexual maturity does not go hand-in-hand with emotional maturity, and so there are a lot of questions about how this will affect our society in the future.
You can go on thinking what you will about the study itself, but I think your reaction is a bit too knee-jerk to be modded "Interesting".
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Haha ... I'm with you there dude, I was actually going to make a crack about the gay guy having all the female friends too.
:-\
Only then I realized that being gay in high school was never a real good way to avoid getting beat up. Or being gay and walking down the street in a lot of cities in America, for that matter.
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If you're just under or around 14 or 15, you're probably thinking "OMIGOD I'M GONNA GET LAID!"
+++ATH0
Are you really that dense?
Sex for pre-teens and early teens is absolutely self destructive. They don't fully appreciate the consequences of their actions, and the result many times is an early pregnancy, and with it for the girls, the stigma of being a young mother or the slut who had the abortion. And how'd you like to be a guy who takes over child support payments at 18? Even if they go to college, they'll probably have to limit their choices to local schools to stay close to their kid, and their free time will be eaten up by paying for their mistake.
"Sex for pre-teens and early teens is absolutely self destructive. They don't fully appreciate the consequences of their actions,..."
:)
Well, I'm glad that adults don't have that problem.
Happened to me too. In the grand scheme of things, I don't even think I hit puberty all that early, but I was one of the first in my class to mature. Suddenly, I was getting attention from the opposite sex that I was not the slightest bit prepared to deal with. It made me so uncomfortable that I became anorexic because I was desperate to stop maturing and keep my little girl body. I didn't understand what was happening to me, and I didn't have anybody to help guide me through it.
/. Biology is a science after all, and human biology in particular is an area that is not as widely understood as it could be.
I also think that in our modern, technological society, we take our bodies for granted and don't give much thought to how they work. We tend to forget how much our biology influences our actions (often in ways that are not obvious). I recently got a demonstration of this when I started a new job. I noticed that I felt very competitive with the other women in the office. At the same time, I found myself subconsciously evaluating the attractiveness of the men around me. When I spent a few days distracted by what seemed to me like the intoxicating scent a visiting employee's cologne, I started wondering what on earth was happening to me. It was like going through puberty all over again. Then it finally dawned on me: my daughter weaned last summer, and my body was telling me it was time to look for a mate and have another baby. I was basically a victim of my own hormones.
So yes, I do think this is an appropriate topic for
Sex for pre-teens and early teens is absolutely self destructive. They don't fully appreciate the consequences of their actions, and the result many times is an early pregnancy, and with it for the girls, the stigma of being a young mother or the slut who had the abortion.
I'm so sick of this pseudo-argument. The consequences of sex (mainly pregnancy and disease) just aren't that hard to grasp, and there's no doubt in my mind that any teenager can understand them. I certainly could at that age.
It isn't the kind of knowledge that can only be gained through years of experience; it's a collection of straightforward facts, the kind of knowledge that can be printed on a flyer and handed out on the street corner.
The solution is education. Every teenager should know (1) how pregnancy occurs, (2) why pregnancy at a young age is bad, (3) how disease is transmitted, (4) why STDs are bad, and (5) how to prevent pregnancy and the spread of disease. Anyone around the age of puberty who can't learn all that in, say, two weeks will never be able to understand it, and will probably suffer many other problems throughout their sad, clueless lives.
Of course, that education doesn't help much if teenagers aren't able to get it (e.g. their parents pull them out of sex education classes, or the school board implements an "abstinence only" curriculum with no real information), or if they can't use that knowledge to protect themselves (e.g. no access to condoms or birth control). So the other half of the solution is to support honest, factual sex education programs, as well as Planned Parenthood and/or other groups that make contraception available to anyone who needs it.
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You contradicted exactly not a fucking thing I said.
The consequences of smoking and drinking aren't that hard to grasp either, yet children tend to flock to both when given a chance. Hell, there are even ad campaigns, warnings on the side of boxes and bottles, and yearly in school education campaigns. It doesn't matter, because for a teenager, there's nothing better than being thought of as an adult. Who needs consequences when you're bulletproof?
Now, here's your very short clue bus rolling into town: it isn't a pseudo-argument to say that kids fucking as early teens is a thing that isn't good for society. It's a fact. No amount of sex education changes that fact. Kids aren't given adult responsibilities because they don't handle them very well. They tend to go for the immediate gratification instead of thinking things through. Hell, most adults don't handle adult responsibility very well, and it's only through seeing enough of their peers fuck up that they actually get it. There's a huge difference between knowing a bunch of facts and learning something.
STDs? Virgins aren't exactly a major carrier. Condoms? How are they gonna get em? Birth control? Yeah, little Susie at 14 is going to go ask her mom to take her to the doctor for a birth control prescription. Fucking? Hell yeah! Fucking feels good and makes little Billy feel like a man and gives him a small amount of emotional control over little Suzie. Who needs all those facts when you can play trailer trash roulette?
The consequences of smoking and drinking aren't that hard to grasp either, yet children tend to flock to both when given a chance.
There are a lot more adult smokers and drinkers than there are minors, aren't there? People like nicotine and alcohol, not just children.
It doesn't matter, because for a teenager, there's nothing better than being thought of as an adult.
Heh. If someone wants to be thought of as an adult, what better way to get him to smoke or drink than to tell him smoking and drinking are only for adults?
There's a huge difference between knowing a bunch of facts and learning something.
And yet, in this case, knowing the facts is enough. If you know that you can have sex with very little risk just by putting on a condom, you'll do it. It worked for me.
Condoms? How are they gonna get em? Birth control? Yeah, little Susie at 14 is going to go ask her mom to take her to the doctor for a birth control prescription.
Thanks for making my point for me. If you want to reduce pregnancies, make condoms and birth control available to the teenagers who want them. They're going to try their damnedest to have sex anyway, and some of them are going to succeed no matter how their parents, teachers, or state legislators try to stop them.
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In my country, 14 year old Susie has easy access to free condoms.
In my country, 16 year old Susie has a granted right to get free access to a doctor and get birth control prescription in privacy, with her parents absolutely not getting access to any of her private medical information. (I am not sure about 14 year olds. There might or might not be such issues for them. However, 16 year olds have full rights of privacy and patient-doctor secrecy, and especially in teen STD/pregnancy cases we have full attention that this is really done this way)
In my country, 14 year old low-income non-schooled boys and girls would get information about safe sex, demanding use of condoms, STD's, toll-free phones to arrange doctor's consultations and get birth-control items, etc through messages in radio and huge posters at bus stops in cheap housing areas.
Who needs informed children when the 'feelings of the religious' could be harmed? USA has the worst teenage pregnancy and teenage STD problems of all the developed countries, and the the main difference between USA and others seems simply the information that's getting to the kids.
The consequences of smoking and drinking aren't that hard to grasp either, yet children tend to flock to both when given a chance.
Did you ever stop and think that the reason that is true is because everyone keeps telling them they cannot do those things? Stop making such a big deal about it, and it loses much of the appeal. Remember, kids usually want to act at being older than they are.
At the same time, I watched everyone else act like idiots when I was a teenager over sex and drugs and made up my mind not to join them. Early puberty doesn't make one have sex at an early age--stupidity and lack of the concept of individual responsibility will.
I love how society likes to blame everything BUT individuals for their problems and for doing stupid things. TV made me do it. Hollywood made me do it. Drugs made me do it. And now, "Puberty made me do it." It's terribly dysfunctional.
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