Is early good or bad? Early puberty onset and its consequences for learning

Abstract

Entering puberty at a relatively young age is often thought to be associated with negative outcomes, such as poorer cardiovascular and psychosocial health. However, the literature on the relationship between early puberty, learning and academic achievement is inconclusive. Previous work suggests both positive and negative outcomes of early puberty. We here review recent findings on the relationship between early puberty and cognitive outcomes and integrate these findings into larger theoretical frameworks of pubertal development. We argue that differences in observed outcomes may be explained by domain-and context-specific effects. Early maturation may be linked to positive as well as negative cognitive outcomes, depending on the domain studied, and appears to be influenced by the wider social context, with less supportive environments associated with poorer outcomes for early maturers.

The Effects of Age, Biological Maturation and Sex on the Development of Executive Functions in Adolescents

“…On both inhibition and working memory, a temporarily lower score is seen for earlier maturing adolescents. This could possibly be due to the reorganization of the prefrontal cortex, induced by sex hormones (Chaku and Hoyt, 2019;Laube and Fuhrmann, 2020), although the temporary decline in performance should eventually emerge in all adolescents at some chronological age, when puberty onset starts, a general temporary decline in score was not observed in this study. The maturation disparity hypothesis can explain why the short decrease in scores could potentially only happen to earlier maturing adolescents, because they might encounter more challenges at puberty onset than their peers, resulting in different EF scores during adolescence FIGURE 3 | Prediction plots based on the interaction between age and %PAH in GEE model 3 per sex (A = male, B = female), for each EF component (1 = Inhibition, 2 = Planning, 3 = Shifting, 4 = Working memory).…”

“…%PAH, percentage of predicted adult height. (Ge and Natsuaki, 2009;Laube and Fuhrmann, 2020). We should also take into account that females have a 2-year head start in their biological maturation process compared to males (Malina et al, 2004).…”

“…Two main hypotheses have been presented to explain such effects. The hormonal influence hypothesis suggests that during adolescence, an increase in sex hormones in the brain are related to the start and end of sensitive periods in the brain that affect EF and behavior (Chaku and Hoyt, 2019;Laube and Fuhrmann, 2020). At the onset of adolescence, the release of these sex hormones can cause an excess of synapses, a phenomenon that can evoke a decrease in the quality of information processing and possibly even EF performance [see Blakemore and Choudhury (2018) for a review].…”

“…At the onset of adolescence, the release of these sex hormones can cause an excess of synapses, a phenomenon that can evoke a decrease in the quality of information processing and possibly even EF performance [see Blakemore and Choudhury (2018) for a review]. However, once the pruning process of neural pathways has started, the prefrontal cortex is also reorganized, leading to more efficient cognitive processing (Crone, 2009;Koolschijn et al, 2014;Juraska and Willing, 2017;Chaku and Hoyt, 2019;Laube and Fuhrmann, 2020).…”

Well-Being and Cognition Are Coupled During Development: A Preregistered Longitudinal Study of 1,136 Children and Adolescents

“…Developmental theories suggest that early puberty may accentuate preexisting differences in childhood (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991) or impair plasticity and learning (Schulz et al, 2009). Note, however, that several empirical (Chaku & Hoyt, 2019;Koerselman & Pekkarinen, 2017) and theoretical studies (Belsky et al, 2007;Laube & Fuhrmann, 2020) now suggest that in supportive environments, early puberty can be linked to more positive cognitive outcomes, too. Chaku and Hoyt (2019) showed that early maturation may be associated with lower self-control but also better attention.…”