Navigating puberty, identity, and race among transnationally, transracially adopted Korean American adolescents.

This exploratory study examined the relation between pubertal timing and dimensions of ethnic-racial identity among adopted Korean Americans raised transracially in White families. The study also examined whether internalized racism moderated the association between pubertal timing and ethnic-racial identity. Adopted Korean American adolescents (N = 202; 108 females; ages 13-19 years) completed measures of pubertal development, ethnic-racial identity, and internalized racism in 2007. There was no significant main effect of pubertal timing for either male or female adolescents. Internalized racism moderated the relation between pubertal timing and ethnic-racial identity clarity (B = -.16, p = .015) among male adolescents. Specifically, earlier pubertal timing was significantly associated with lower ethnic-racial identity clarity for male adolescents with higher levels of internalized racism.

Ethnic-Racial Socialization Among Mothers of Black and Black-White Biracial Daughters During the Pubertal Transition.

Ethnic-racial socialization is a salient component of parenting in Black families. What is less clear is how Black families discuss ethnicity-race and social inequalities with pubescent children. We examined associations between pubertal timing and ethnic-racial socialization among mothers (Mage = 42) of Black (n = 286) and Black-White biracial (n = 233) girls aged 9-12. Moderation by maternal stress about puberty was also examined. Results indicated mothers of Black girls who were stressed about puberty reported more preparation for bias; whereas both groups of mothers reported more cultural socialization. Early pubertal timing and high maternal stress about puberty predicted more cultural socialization among both groups and more egalitarian beliefs among only mothers of Black-White biracial girls. The findings highlight the importance of ethnic-racial socialization during puberty.

Puberty, depressive symptoms, and neighborhood context among African American and Caribbean Black males.

OBJECTIVE: Previous empirical research on pubertal development among Black boys is limited. The present study examined the ethnic-racial composition of neighborhoods as a moderator in the relation between pubertal indicators and depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of African American and Caribbean Black boys. METHOD: The present study utilized the male sample (N = 559) from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent sample (Jackson et al., 2004). The sample consists of 395 African American and 164 Caribbean Black boys ages 13-17 years who completed measures of relative pubertal timing, voice changes, pubic hair growth, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The results indicate that Black boys with early developing hair growth who lived in neighborhoods with higher percentages of Black residents had higher depressive symptoms compared to their early developing counterparts in neighborhoods with fewer Black residents. African American males with early developing hair growth had higher depressive symptoms compared to Caribbean Black males with early developing hair growth regardless of neighborhood context. CONCLUSION: Early pubertal timing is a risk for African American boys' mental health regardless of neighborhood context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparing Associations Between Puberty, Ethnic-Racial Identity, Self-Concept, and Depressive Symptoms Among African American and Caribbean Black Boys.

Research on pubertal development among Black boys is limited. Addressing this gap, we examined associations between three pubertal domains (e.g., voice change, hair growth, and perceived relative timing), depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, among a nationally representative sample of 395 African American and 164 Caribbean Black boys (Mage  = 15 years). Moderation by ethnic-racial identity (e.g., racial centrality, racial regard) was also explored. Results indicated that for both ethnic subgroups early voice change increased self-esteem; whereas early voice change increased depressive symptoms among boys who felt society views Blacks more negatively. Buffering effects of ethnic-racial identity also varied significantly between the two groups. Findings suggest that the meaning Black boys ascribe to their ethnic-racial group may explain puberty-linked outcomes.

Pubertal timing as a moderator between general discrimination experiences and self-esteem among African American and Caribbean Black youth.

OBJECTIVES: The present study used a nationally representative sample of African American and Caribbean Black adolescents to examine whether relative pubertal timing moderated the relation between general and racial discrimination experiences and self-esteem. It was anticipated that discrimination experiences would be more harmful for early maturing African American and Caribbean Black girls and boys compared to their on-time and late counterparts. METHOD: The participants included 1170 youth (e.g., 563 males and 607 females) from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent (NSAL-A) who ranged in age from 13 to 17. Youth completed self-report measures of pubertal development, general and racial discrimination experiences, and self-esteem. RESULTS: Moderation was evident such that African American and Caribbean Black girls who perceived their pubertal development as early relative to their same-age and same-sex peers exhibited higher self-esteem than African American and Caribbean Black girls who perceived their development as late at high levels of general discrimination experiences. Moderation was not evident for racial discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Black girls, nor was it evident for general and racial discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Black males. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that relative pubertal timing operates as a potential moderator for general discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Black girls. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions of pubertal timing relative to peers: Comparison targets and social contexts of comparison.

OBJECTIVES: In studies measuring pubertal timing multiple ways, perceived timing relative to peers is more strongly associated with adverse outcomes in girls. However, girls' comparison targets (those to whom they compare) and the contexts in which comparison occurs is unclear. This study examined perceived relative pubertal timing to identify the comparison target (ethnicity-race) and the contexts (schools, neighborhoods) of these comparisons. METHOD: We assessed perceived relative pubertal timing in a diverse sample of 511 late-adolescent girls aged 17-19 years (49% White) recruited from a range of U.S. universities. RESULTS: Girls more often made in-group comparisons. Latina, Asians, and Middle Easterners were more likely to use White comparisons than Blacks. Latinas also more often used Black comparisons, and Latina and Whites more often used Asian comparisons. Early developers (collapsed across ethnicity-race) more often used Latina and Black comparisons. There were no significant differences based on ethnicity-race or pubertal timing groups on the context of comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings support the similarity hypothesis tenet of social comparison theory, such that most girls compare their development with other girls within their own ethnic-racial group, and limited out-group comparisons occur. Moreover, comparison contexts often take place in classrooms/schools. Given research is scant regarding the mechanisms that link puberty and negative outcomes, this study offers new insights into potential social mechanisms for future research to explore. Greater attention might be placed on ethnic-racial identity exploration and critical media literacy to help pubertal girls explore the role of media in their identity development and body ideal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions of Pubertal Timing and Discrimination Among African American and Caribbean Black Girls.

This study used a nationally representative sample of African American and Caribbean Black adolescent females to examine the relation between perceived pubertal timing relative to peers and discriminatory experiences. Participants included the 607 girls who participated in the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent (NSAL-A), and ranged in age from 13 to 17. Most African American girls perceived their development as on-time relative to their same-aged peers; whereas the majority of Caribbean Black girls perceived their development as earlier than their same-aged peers. The results indicated that girls who perceived that their pubertal development was earlier than their same-aged peers reported more general and racial discrimination experiences.

Understanding Puberty and Its Measurement: Ideas for Research in a New Generation.

The measurement of puberty is an intricate and precise task, requiring a match between participants' developmental age and appropriate techniques to identify and capture variations in maturation. Much of the foundational work on puberty and its psychosocial correlates was conducted several decades ago. In this article, we review the biological foundation of puberty; the operationalization of puberty in statistical analyses; and strategies for considering diversity and social context in research to help researchers align measurement with meaningful conceptual questions. These three areas are particularly important, given new statistical techniques, greater awareness of individual variations in development, and key differences between past cohorts and youth coming of age today.

Next Steps in Puberty Research: Broadening the Lens Toward Understudied Populations.

Decades of puberty research have yielded key scientific discoveries. Building on the field's rich history, we highlight four understudied populations: youth of color, boys, sexual minority youth, and gender minority youth. We explore why scientific study has been slow to evolve in these groups and propose paths forward for exciting new work. For ethnically racially diverse youth, we discuss the need to incorporate culture and context. For boys, we highlight methodological issues and challenges of mapping existing conceptual models onto boys. For sexual and gender minority youth, we discuss unique challenges during puberty and suggest ways to better capture their experiences. With an eye toward a new era, we make recommendations for next steps and underscore the importance of transdisciplinary research.

Promoting Resilience Among African American Girls: Racial Identity as a Protective Factor.

This study examines school climate, racial identity beliefs, and achievement motivation beliefs within a cultural-ecological and risk and resilience framework. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of 733 (Mage  = 14.49) African American adolescent girls. A linear mixed effects model was used to determine if racial identity dimensions moderated the relationship between school climate and achievement motivation beliefs across four waves. Results revealed that racial identity (private regard and racial centrality) and ideology (nationalist) beliefs were associated with higher achievement motivation beliefs over time, while racial centrality and private regard, and a sense of belonging served as protective factors. The findings contribute to the importance of racial identity beliefs and increase the visibility of African American girls.

Pubertal timing, racial identity, neighborhood, and school context among Black adolescent females.

OBJECTIVES: This study bridges the empirical research on pubertal timing effects, racial identity, and school and neighborhood context to understand the pubertal development and depression link among Black adolescent females. We examined whether racial identity content dimensions moderated the relation between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms among Black adolescent females and the moderating capacity of school and neighborhood racial composition. METHOD: We administered measures of pubertal development, racial identity, and depressive symptoms to a sample of 217 Black adolescent females, aged 14 to 18. We assessed racial centrality, private regard, and public regard and used archival data to obtain the racial composition of participants' neighborhoods and schools. RESULTS: The results indicated that high racial centrality levels were linked to depressive symptoms for adolescent girls with late pubertal timing relative to their early counterparts, which was stronger for girls attending not majority Black schools. The results also indicated that low public regard levels were linked to depressive symptoms among adolescent girls with early pubertal timing relative to their late counterparts, which was stronger for girls attending not majority Black schools. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides evidence that racial identity and school racial context moderate the effects of pubertal timing differentially for early and late maturing Black girls. The results support the notion that the psychological effects of pubertal timing on internalizing symptoms are context dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record

Peer Exclusion During the Pubertal Transition: The Role of Social Competence.

For some youth, early puberty is accompanied by peer exclusion. Yet early developers may experience less peer exclusion if they have social competence, which would bolster their ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with their peers. Accordingly, the present study tests whether pubertal timing and tempo predicts decrements in children's social competence and whether decrements in social competence account for associations between puberty (timing and tempo) and peer exclusion over time. Longitudinal data were drawn from 1364 families (48% female; 76% White; M = 9.32 years, SD = .48, at Wave 3) who participated in Waves 3-5 (i.e., grades 4-6) of Phase III of the NICHD-SECCYD. The results from latent growth curve models indicated that earlier pubertal timing and more rapid pubertal tempo among girls were associated with high initial levels of peer exclusion. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that early developers' susceptibility to peer exclusion was associated with their initial level of social competence. In boys, pubertal timing and tempo were not directly associated with peer exclusion; instead, indirect effects of pubertal timing on peer exclusion (intercept, slope) occurred through initial levels of social competence. On average, early developers' who had low levels of social competence also had high initial levels of peer exclusion but experienced decrements in peer exclusion over time. The association between the intercepts for puberty and peer exclusion and the slopes for social competence and peer exclusion were stronger for boys than girls. Overall, our findings suggest that early developers' susceptibility to and experiences of peer exclusion are associated with their development of social competence.

Self-perceptions of pubertal timing and patterns of peer group activities and dating behavior among heterosexual adolescent girls.

This study identified patterns of past and concurrent peer group and dating behavior in a sample of adolescent girls (N = 511; aged 17-19 years; 49% White). Peer group activities and dating behaviors were classified as occurring in either early (ages 10-13 years), middle (ages 14-16 years), or late (ages 17-19 years) adolescence according to the age at which each participant indicated the activity/behavior was first experienced. Latent class analysis identified four latent classes: Early Interactions/Early Daters (15%), Early Interactions/Late Daters (17%), Early Interactions/Middle Daters (33%) and Middle Interactions/Middle Daters (35%). Class membership was associated with girl's perceived pubertal timing. Compared to Early Interactions/Early Daters, girls in the Early Interactions/Late Daters class reported higher levels of pubertal timing, indicating greater perception that their pubertal development was late relative to peers. Late perceived pubertal timing is potentially relevant for dating but not necessarily other mixed- and cross-sex peer interactions.

Heterosexual romantic involvement and depressive symptoms in black adolescent girls: effects of menarche and perceived social support.

Research has accumulated to demonstrate that depressive symptoms are associated with heterosexual romantic involvement during adolescence, but relatively little work has linked this body of literature to the existing literature on associations between early pubertal timing and adolescent depressive symptoms. This study extends prior research by examining whether early menarche and heterosexual romantic involvement interact to predict depressive symptoms in a national sample of Black adolescent girls (N = 607; M age = 15 years; 32 % Caribbean Black and 68 % African American). We further examined whether the adverse effects of heterosexual romantic involvement and early menarche would be mediated by perceived social support from mothers, fathers, and peers. Path analysis results indicated that girls who report current involvement in a heterosexual romantic relationship also reported high levels of perceived peer support than girls with no romantic involvement. High levels of perceived peer support, in turn, predicted low levels of depressive symptoms. Romantically involved girls with an early menarche also reported significantly less depressive symptoms than girls not romantically involved with an early menarche. Neither perceived maternal support nor perceived paternal support mediated associations between heterosexual romantic involvement, menarche, and depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that individual and social factors can impede heterosexual romantic involvement effects on depressive symptoms in Black adolescent girls.

Race and perceived pubertal transition effects on girls' depressive symptoms and delinquent behaviors.

Most past research on the effects of early pubertal timing on girls' depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior has focused on either age of menarche or has combined multiple indicators of development into a single index of puberty. Past research has rarely examined both the onset of puberty such as age of menarche, as well more psychologically mediated impressions of puberty (i.e., perceived pubertal timing) within the same study. This study extends past research on racial differences and pubertal related effects on girls' depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior by examining the independent influence of different indicators of puberty (age of menarche, development of breasts, and perceived pubertal timing). Two waves of data (100% females) were used from African Americans (N = 481) and European Americans (N = 1259) who were enrolled in seventh- and eighth-grade during the first wave of data collection in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Early age of menarche was associated with high levels of depressive symptoms at Wave 1. Additionally, both early and late perceived pubertal timing were associated with high levels of depressive symptoms and high delinquent behaviors at Wave 1. The structural relationships among these variables were similar for African Americans and European Americans. Age of menarche and perceived pubertal timing influenced depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior at Wave 2 through depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior reported at Wave 1. The implications of these findings are discussed with an emphasis on how the specific indicator used to assess puberty is important in efforts to understand pubertal timing effects.

Sex variations in youth anxiety symptoms: effects of pubertal development and gender role orientation.

This study evaluated whether pubertal development and gender role orientation (i.e., masculinity and femininity) can partially explain sex variations in youth anxiety symptoms among clinic-referred anxious youth (N = 175; ages 9-13 years; 74% Hispanic; 48% female). Using youth and parent ratings of youth anxiety symptoms, structural equation modeling results indicated that youth who reported being more advanced in their pubertal development reported high levels of femininity and anxiety symptoms. Youth who reported high levels of masculinity had low levels of anxiety symptoms as reported by both youths and parents. The estimated effects of pubertal development, femininity, and masculinity on youth and parent ratings of youth anxiety symptoms were not significantly moderated by biological sex. Pubertal development and gender role orientation appear to be important in explaining levels of youth anxiety symptoms among clinic-referred anxious youth.

Ethnicity, perceived pubertal timing, externalizing behaviors, and depressive symptoms among black adolescent girls.

An accumulation of research evidence suggests that early pubertal timing plays a significant role in girls' behavioral and emotional problems. If early pubertal timing is a problematic event, then early developing Black girls should manifest evidence of this crisis because they tend to be the earliest to develop compared to other girls from different racial and ethnic groups. Given the inconsistent findings among studies using samples of Black girls, the present study examined the independent influence of perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Black girls (412 African American and 195 Caribbean Black; M = 15 years). Path analysis results indicated that perceived pubertal timing effects on externalizing behaviors were moderated by ethnic subgroup. Caribbean Black girls' who perceived their development to be early engaged in more externalizing behaviors than Caribbean Black girls' who perceived their development to be either on-time or late. Age of menarche did not significantly predict Black girls' externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms. The onset of menarche does not appear to be an important predictor of Black girls' symptoms of externalizing behavior and depression. These findings suggest ethnic subgroup and perceived pubertal timing are promising factors for better understanding the adverse effects of early perceived pubertal timing among Black girls.

The Future of Women in Psychological Science.

There has been extensive discussion about gender gaps in representation and career advancement in the sciences. However, psychological science itself has yet to be the focus of discussion or systematic review, despite our field's investment in questions of equity, status, well-being, gender bias, and gender disparities. In the present article, we consider 10 topics relevant for women's career advancement in psychological science. We focus on issues that have been the subject of empirical study, discuss relevant evidence within and outside of psychological science, and draw on established psychological theory and social-science research to begin to chart a path forward. We hope that better understanding of these issues within the field will shed light on areas of existing gender gaps in the discipline and areas where positive change has happened, and spark conversation within our field about how to create lasting change to mitigate remaining gender differences in psychological science.

Attitudes, beliefs, and norms about sex and sexuality among young Indian male adults: A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the risky sexual behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and sources of information regarding sexual health among young adult Indian males. Currently, students in Indian secondary schools do not receive a structured comprehensive sexual health education. This qualitative study explored the sources of information, knowledge, and attitudes around sexual behaviors among young men in Mysore, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between May and June 2011, 23 semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews with males aged 18-25 years were conducted to explore their views on sexual norms, attitudes, and their sources of information to gain knowledge about sexual health. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Participants shared a desire for quality sex education in schools but described their current sexual health curriculum as inadequate. Since social taboos dictated the space in which students gained awareness on sexual topics, the participants resorted to the outside information from both reliable and unreliable sources. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have important implications for laying the groundwork for culturally specific sexual health education interventions to meet the needs of a growing youth population in India.

Pubertal timing and its link to behavioral and emotional problems among 'at-risk' African American adolescent girls.

Using an 'at-risk' sample of African American girls, the present study examined the link between girls' retrospective reports of pubertal timing, girls' perceived relative pubertal timing, and their behavioral and emotional problems as rated by the girls themselves (N=102; 11-17 years), as well as teachers and parents. Structural equation modeling results indicated that the girls' retrospective reports of menarche were significantly related to their perceived relative menarche, whereas the girls' retrospective reports of development of their breasts were not related to their perceived relative development of breasts. Girls who perceived their breasts developing early relative to their peers were more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors according to teacher report. Significant effects of teacher reported adolescent internalizing problems also were found for girls who retrospectively reported either early or late development of breasts. The study's findings underscore the importance of teasing apart the effects of different indicators of girls' pubertal development on psychosocial adjustment and including teachers' reports of girls' emotional and behavioral problems, particularly among girls with the additional risks associated with residing in an economically disadvantaged urban setting.