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."

Comments

Dumb.

[Mancat]

Oh look. Another fluff study done almost entirely by statisticians so that they could suck up grant money and waste my tax dollars. Really important research you're doing there, guys. Children entering puberty at an early age MIGHT get into fights or have sex more early? So what? When did our society define the age at which these acts should first occur? I must have missed that.

Re:Dumb.

[Jesapoo]

"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. The law is the most obvious way that "society" has to show when these acts are acceptable. Laws exist against drug use and violence, too, although these are more commonly *never* 'socially' acceptable (i.e. the blanket illegality of heroin or GBH, rather than an acceptable age) Of course, what "society" finds acceptable is a rather wooly term. In the UK for instance, it is illegal for people under the age of 16 to smoke and for under 18s to drink alcohol. However, some people view this as overly restrictive - hence why there is such an issue of underage drinking, as well as smoking and sex. If the entirety of society viewed it as a total taboo, it wouldn't happen as much. An example of this is the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy. Years ago, a young girl getting pregnant, particularly without being married, was a major society no-no, and was less common. Nowadays, 14- and 15-year-old single mothers are freely open about this. Drug use is another area where "society" and the law are sometimes at odds - for instance, there is a notable minority of people who think marijuana should be legalised. What I would have thought would have been a much more useful piece of research would be to find out at what age different people engage in these activities, and relating that not only to the age at which they hit puberty, but also things like social and ethnic groups. But then, I'd be surprised if this research has not been done beforehand.

Call Me a Tin-Foil Hatter but...

[MightyMait]

Read "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins for an interesting view on this (and all sorts of other diet-related issues). He contends that all the hormones we're feeding our dairy cattle as well as meat animals are contributing to earlier puberty (he was citing 8 year-olds developing breasts, etc.).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915811812/103-44 66893-7535803?v=glance&n=283155

I wish I still had a copy of the facts sheet used to promote the book. Had all sorts of gems (like the fact that the average American house-cat eats more meat than the average El Salvadorean (IIRC)).

Image problems

[Freaky Spook]

I think this is more a problem with girls, then it is with boys, when I was 9 a female friend of mine began puberty very early, she started developing breasts & began her period, for her the next couple of years were very traumatic as she was victimised by other girls & picked on by boys because of her funny bodily changes, entering high school she was extremly depressed & paranoid about herself.

In early high school, she had problems with her sexuality, related to her depression & self image she didn't care what she did & ended up becoming sexually active more out of lack of care, she had been taught about it but because of her traumatic time of enterting puberty early it had made her self-destructive.

Hitting puberty early can increase the risk of early exposure to sex, but the biggest factor is the lack of education provided to people, my friend had explained what had happened to her & that it was normal but it didn't help that nearly everybody else didn't have puberty explained properly for another few years, it was all a big joke but to my friend it was serious and if everyone had been educated a little earlier she may have not had the problems later in life.

The opposite is true also

[Illserve]

Hitting puberty early may not be a picnic, but hitting it late is no walk in the park either.

I refer all queries to the outstanding Tv series Freaks and Geeks.

There are some advantages

[Anonymous Coward]

Some advantages to being bigger than your peers are easy to document statistically. If you are born in certain months of the year, you are more likely to get into the NHL for instance. Why? The age limits for the childrens' hockey leagues cut off at a certain month. Some kids entering the league are almost a year older and bigger than others. The bigger, older kids perform better and get the breaks. They go on to the next league and the advantage holds all the way up to the professional league. So, if we assume that talent is evenly distributed, we have a case where an early advantage in size/maturity trumps talent.

It isn't uniformly that way. It depends on the nature of the filtering process. A counter example is kids who come into school already reading. Their advantage is gone by grade 4. Why? All kids pass into the next grade so there is no filtering process.

So, is early onset puberty an advantage? It depends (doesn't everything).

There's lots of reasons for this

[PCM2]

There are all sorts of reasons for early puberty in women. One study found that black girls seemed to be hitting puberty earlier at a much more rapid rate than white girls. Investigation revealed that some of the hair care products commonly used to straighten black girls' hair were responsible, believe it or not. The chemicals in those products, when combined with other environmental factors, would create synthetic estrogens in the girls' bloodstreams, causing them to begin to develop breasts and pubic hair at really young ages (like 5). When the use of the products was discontinued, the breast tissue would disappear and the pubic hair fell out.

Interesting anecdote, however it's actually slightly offtopic. If you check TFA it's actually mostly talking about boys. The victimization in this case is not the rape (or date rape) that you assume. It's about teens getting beaten up, or stabbed in knife fights, etc.

Makes sense, if you think about it. Men, particularly young-ish men, perceive similarly-aged men as rivals, especially where women are present. If you believe a rival is younger than you, you might figure "he's just a little punk" and use your apparent seniority to browbeat him into backing down. If you think he's your same age, on the other hand, you might decide that a more drastic form of "correction" is necessary. At the same time, he might also tend to react less predictably -- being young, he feels like he has more to prove. The whole situation escalates much more rapidly than a confrontation between true peers and quickly turns to violence.

According to TFA though, the main factor that helps early puberty boys avoid this phenomenon is having a lot of female friends.

It happened to a friend of my sister's...

[lenski]

I returned to my parents' place for a weekend visit one year, and next to my sister... Behold! A 6' 2" real live woman! (I was a 21 year old geek and all too aware that are too few girls my size, this could be good...) So I asked my mother who the babysitter was, and was she single? Replied my dear mum, "Don't get any ideas. Period. You will make no remarks, no comments, nothing. You got it?" Oh why, says I...

"She is 12 years old, is a friend of your sister's and she already has enough trouble."

I saw a beautiful woman. She was no such thing: A 12-year old girl, and had already been the target of multiple, completely inappropriate advances by men and boys. She and my sister remained friends for several years, and by the time she was in college, she had already been hurt in too many ways.

These studies of early puberty are not stupid, they are needed in the context of a society that fails to protect its children.

Re:It happened to a friend of my sister's...

[WCLPeter]

I know how you feel. I'm 32 and recently went through the same thing.

Like your stereotypical geek, when I'm around women I find attractive I tend to get nervous, timid and utterly pathetic. I am simply incapable of talking to them without making myself sound like a complete and total moron. So I don't think it's much of a shock that I haven't dated much, and when I do it's usually well intentioned friends who try to set me up on blind dates that never end well.

That doesn't stop me from looking because once in a long while I will meet a woman whom I find irresistible yet am still able to be completely comfortable and full of confidence around. It really doesn't happen that often (8 times in fifteen years), but when it does it's great. Unfortunately I haven't met one yet that wasn't already in a strong committed relationship. Well that is until I met this girl.

It was just under two years ago when I was 30. I decided to go to this Japanese restaurant I'd read good things about. When I walked in, there she was and almost right away I was taken with her. Since I used to work in a restaurant, I sympathize with what they go through so I tend to be relaxed and friendly with the staff. It paid off, because she spent a lot of time at my table. We got along so well, I decided to go back the next week. Every Thursday over the next few weeks I got to know her better as she spent a fair bit of time at my table. She's very independent and knows what she wants out of life, working two jobs along with studying hard to get it; she's strong willed, highly intelligent, smart, and has real genuine passion towards her interests and learning new ones.

Not only did she appear to be into me, the best part was, not once throughout the entire six weeks (I gave her ample opportunity) I spent getting to know her did she mention a boyfriend. I just simply couldn't believe my luck. My family had wanted to see this girl I'd been raving about, (the food is *very* good there, so it wasn't a stretch to take them in) they all got along extremely well and absolutely adored her.

I had finally worked up the courage and was *this* close to asking her out when she dropped the bomb. You see, the whole time I'd been getting to know her I was certain she was in her early to mid twenties. She was way too mature and together in the head to be anything but. She looked early twenties, she acted early twenties and was mature like early twenties. I was convinced she was early twenties, my family was convinced she was early twenties and while that's normally a bit younger than what I go for, I was convinced it could work and that she was worth the effort.

I never once thought to ask how old she was. Nothing she said or did the whole time I'd spent getting to know her pointed to or could have prepared me for her real age. I'm think she knew the embarrassment it would cause me if I asked her out and she had to turn me down, so she worked it into the conversation and told me how old she was.

17

Not a clue. My family didn't guess, my sister who can spot a fake ID carrying teeny-bopper a 100 yards away (she used to work in a group home, lots of experience) didn't guess. But most importantly I didn't guess and I was devastated. Here was a girl that was utterly perfect for me in just about every way I could think of and she was 13 years my junior. I could have probably pushed for it, I could tell she liked me, but it just wouldn't have been right to press for it. No matter how much I wanted it to happen, I couldn't be that selfish guy who would try to force her into an adult relationship that would deny her her "best years" (I didn't do any fun stuff or grow as a person until my late teens early twenties.).

So I did the only thing I could. I let it go.

I still go there (the food *is* good) but I usually avoid her shift. No sense picking at it needlessly. Although, every once in a while she or I will change our day. We're always happy to see one another and it gives us time to