The current paper critically reviews the empirical literature focused on the association between puberty and anxiety. A detailed review of more than 45 empirical articles is provided. There is some evidence that among girls, but not boys, a more advanced pubertal status (controlling for age) is associated with higher reported anxiety symptoms. Also among girls, earlier pubertal timing is linked to higher anxiety scores. It is unclear whether early puberty may lead to increased anxiety or if high anxiety influences pubertal timing. With respect to hormones, there were relatively few significant associations for girls, although this literature is very small. Among boys, several studies reported positive associations between both gonadal and adrenal hormones and anxiety. The direction of effect for these finding is also unstudied. The primary limitation of the hormone-anxiety literature pertains to the absence of pubertal measures in samples of youth in which hormones are measured. The paper concludes with a comprehensive examination of the methodological strengths and weaknesses of the literature and recommendations for future work.Keywords pubertal status; timing; hormones; anxiety; psychopathology; adolescence Anxiety disorders are among the most common forms of psychopathology in adolescence (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003) and across the lifespan, with lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders estimated to be 29% (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, & Walters, 2005). These rates are alarming, in light of the fact that anxiety psychopathology negatively impacts functioning across multiple domains (e.g., McGee & Stanton, 1990), maintains a chronic course for a significant proportion of youth affected (Orvaschel, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 1995), and increases the risk for other types of disorders (Cole, Peeke, Martin, Truglio, & Serocynski, 1998).The period of adolescence appears to be a particularly high-risk phase in terms of the onset and intensification of anxiety problems; for instance, panic attacks (Macaulay & Kleinknecht, 1989;Warren & Zgourides, 1988), social phobia (Inderbitzen & Hope, 1995), and obsessivecompulsive disorder (Rasmussen & Eisen, 1990) commonly emerge during this stage. Accordingly, researchers have called for developmentally sensitive etiologic models of anxiety *Corresponding author University of Arkansas, Department of Psychology, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR 72701, Phone: 479-575-5329, Fax: 479-575-3219, E-mail: eleenfe@uark.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptClin...

A B S T R A C TRemotely piloted aircraft (RPA), commonly referred to as "drones," have emerged over the past decade as an innovative warfighting tool. Given there is a paucity of empirical research assessing drone operators, the purpose of this study was to assess for the prevalence of PTSD symptoms among this cohort. Of the 1084 United States Air Force (USAF) drone operators that participated, a total of 4.3% endorsed a pattern of symptoms of moderate to extreme level of severity meeting criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition. The incidence of PTSD among USAF drone operators in this study was lower than rates of PTSD (10-18%) among military personnel returning from deployment but higher than incidence rates (less than 1%) of USAF drone operators reported in electronic medical records. Although low PTSD rates may be promising, limitations to this study are discussed.

The main and interactive effects of pubertal status and emotional reactivity to bodily sensations elicited by a voluntary hyperventilation challenge were examined in relation to panic symptoms and self- and parent-reported somatic complaints among 123 (56 females) adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years (M(age) = 15.05; SD = 1.50). As expected, after controlling for baseline anxiety, age, and gender, there was a significant interaction between pubertal status and challenge response in predicting the outcome variables. Specifically, adolescents reporting more advanced pubertal status and greater reactivity to the challenge evidenced greater levels of panic symptoms and somatic complaints, whereas pubertal status had relatively less of an effect on these variables among adolescents who did not respond as fearfully to the challenge. Results are discussed in terms of extant theory and research on anxiety vulnerability among adolescents.

Total and factor scores of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) were examined in relation to posttraumatic stress symptom levels within a community-based sample of 68 (43 females) traumatic event-exposed youth between the ages of 10 and 17 years (M age = 14.74 years). Findings were consistent with hypotheses; global AS levels, as well as disease, unsteady, and mental incapacitation concerns related positively to posttraumatic stress levels, whereas social concerns were unrelated to symptom levels. These results suggest that fears of the physical and mental consequences of anxiety are associated with relatively higher levels of posttraumatic stress subsequent to traumatic event exposure. Findings are discussed in terms of potential implications for the role of AS in developmentally-sensitive etiological models of PTSD.

No abstract