Puberty and Its Measurement: A Decade in Review

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, the focus on the importance of puberty to adolescent development has continued with variability in the methodology selected to measure puberty. To capture the relevant and important issues regarding the measurement of puberty in the last decade, this paper will address (1) the neuroendocrine aspects of puberty and its components, as well as the timing of puberty and its tempo; (2) why puberty is measured, including the relevance of puberty and its timing to health and development as well as the relevance of being off-time, that is, early or late with respect to a reference group; (3) the measurement of puberty and its methodology with respect to pubertal staging by physical examination, self-report measures, and their agreement with other methods and measures, hormones and their methods of measurement, and comparison of hormone concentrations to pubertal stage; and (4) recommendations for what is needed in the next decade regarding the measurement of puberty.

Longitudinal Changes in Adolescent Risk-Taking: A Comprehensive Study of Neural Responses to Rewards, Pubertal Development, and Risk-Taking Behavior

“…That is, the data patterns show that girls and boys are comparable in pubertal development until approximately age 12, after which girls show faster pubertal development, as measured with the PDS compared with boys. At approximately age 17, PDS scores for girls and boys are again at the same level (Dorn and Biro, 2011). Testosterone levels followed a pattern with a sharp increase of testosterone levels for boys and a more modest increase for girls starting at approximately age 10.…”

Age at Menarche and Age at First Sexual Intercourse: A Prospective Cohort Study

“…However, menarche is a relatively late event in pubertal progression. 71 Recent international data strongly suggest earlier onset and faster tempo of puberty in some populations, without an overall population reduction in the AAM. [72][73][74] Greater understanding of factors regulating the onset and tempo of puberty are likely to further inform how sexual behavior and reproductive and emotional development are interlinked.…”

Understanding Adolescents

“…Puberty is a gradual and sequential process that spans across the adolescent years, and encapsulates multiple and complex biological processes (Dorn & Biro, 2011). Puberty triggers rapid increases in height, size and capacity of the heart and lungs, muscle mass, and body fat.…”

“…Assigning age-related boundaries to adolescence is problematic since the developmental processes underpinning the transition from childhood to adulthood begin and end at different times for different individuals (e.g. Dorn & Biro, 2011), and do not always follow the same sequence (e.g. Peterson, 1988).…”