Erikson (1950) contends that the physical changes associated with puberty serve as a catalyst for adolescents to question childhood identifications and to consolidate these with current self-conceptions, personal ideologies, interpersonal values, and future aspirations. Erikson describes the adolescent identity crisis as the developmental period…

It is important to account for timing of puberty when studying the adolescent brain and cognition. The use of classical methods for assessing pubertal status may not be feasible in some studies, especially in male adolescents. Using data from a sample of 478 males from a longitudinal birth cohort, we describe the calculations of three independent…

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between specific mental health problems and pubertal stage in (pre)adolescents participating in the Dutch prospective cohort study TRAILS (first assessment: N = 2230, age 11.09 [plus or minus] 0.56, 50.8% girls; second assessment: N = 2149, age 13.56 [plus or minus] 0.53, 51.0% girls). Mental…

Prior research has indicated that pubertal development and peer associations are important determinants of adolescent smoking behavior. However, more remains to be learned about "why" these variables matter or how they may be related to one another in ways that lead to the initiation of smoking. Using contractual data from the National…

The psychological experience of ejaculation was examined for 188 Nigerian adolescent boys to determine emotional reactions, feelings of preparedness, sources of preexperience information, and the extent of peer discussion after the experience. The experience was not perceived negatively, and boys usually told their friends. Most suppliers of…

Examined the effect of puberty on the parent-adolescent relationship in association with ethnicity, parental psychopathology, and chronological age. Found that puberty effects on parent support and parent-adolescent conflict differ for Hispanic and non-Hispanic white boys. Parent alcoholism did not moderate the effect of puberty, and puberty…