In early adolescence, levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness have been found to temporarily decrease, with levels of neuroticism increasing, indicating a dip in personality maturation. It is unknown whether these changes are related to the process of puberty, a major developmental milestone with numerous changes for children. Here, we first…

The present three-wave panel study (N = 968, [X-bar][subscript age] = 11.30, SD = 1.06) examines how developmental factors--pubertal timing and heterosocial involvement (i.e., one's involvement in cross-sex activities)--influence early adolescents' level of media internalization. We hypothesized that early pubertal timing positively moderates the…

In this study, we tested two competing explanations of the previously established link between early female puberty and sexual harassment in early adolescence. The sample included 680 seventh-grade Swedish girls (M[subscript age] = 13.40, SD = 0.53). Findings revealed that looking more sexually mature and being sexually active mediated the link…

The current study tested sex-specific pathways to early puberty, sexual debut, and sexual risk taking, as specified by an integrated evolutionary-developmental model of adolescent sexual development and behavior. In a prospective study of 238 adolescents (n = 129 girls and n = 109 boys) followed from approximately 12-18 years of age, we tested for…

The role of biological maturity in behaviors in adolescents which most often are considered as negative by adults was investigated for a normal group of girls. (Author/LMO)

We have investigated the hypothesis that stress condition will accelerate pubertal maturation in adolescent girls and that faster maturing girls will display more behavioral problems than their on-time or late-maturing peers during pubertal development. Longitudinal data were collected yearly from 1986 to 1997. Parents of 1039 French-speaking…