The influence of early sexual debut and pubertal timing on psychological distress among Taiwanese adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the relative influence of early sexual debut (ESD) and pubertal timing on psychological distress from adolescence to young adulthood in Taiwan, a non-Western society with a distinct cultural and family context. Data were from a cohort sample of 15-year-olds (N = 2595) first interviewed in 2000, with four follow-ups during a 7-year period. Psychological distress was assessed by a reduced form of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised. ESD was defined by first intercourse at age 15 or younger. Multivariate analyses via growth curve modeling found a greater increase in psychological distress over time in adolescents with ESD (β = .28, p < .05). Early-pubertal adolescents were at greater risk for the onset of psychological distress (β = .46, p < .05). Further, early pubertal adolescents with an ESD appeared to be especially likely to be distressed (β = 3.39, p < .05). In addition, analyses showed a non-linear trajectory of psychological distress between the ages of 15 and 22, with distress escalating (β = .45, p < .001) as age increased before tapering off as adolescents became young adults (β = -.03, p < .001). Results suggest the contributing influence of both ESD and pubertal timing on distress trajectories, independent of parental and family characteristics.

Exposure to sexually explicit media in early adolescence is related to risky sexual behavior in emerging adulthood

“…Two indirect findings may address this concern. First, literature has shown that early pubertal timing is related to delinquency and depression [84][85], and two studies that used the same dataset as this study have demonstrated this relationship [80,86]. Second, the distribution of age of menarche from a national representative sample of Taiwanese adolescents was very similar to the present sample (national representative sample: 82.8% before or at 7 th grade; current study: 88% before or at 7 th grade) [87].…”

“…The responses and grouping scheme were identical to those for girls. This grouping method has been used in previous studies [80][81] and the reliability and validity of the PDS have been confirmed [82]. The PDS has been shown to provide a suitable measure of puberty and to capture the subjective and social aspects of pubertal development [83].…”

Adverse adolescence experiences, feeling lonely across life stages and loneliness in adulthood

“…The summed score across all items was standardized and it was gender and age specific. Those individuals who were one standard deviation above the mean were grouped into the “early maturation” group, while the others were grouped into the reference group ( Chiao and Ksobiech, 2015 , Sun et al, 2017 ). Lack of sleep was based on the individual's self-reported sleep hours and was dichotomized into a lack of sleep (daily sleep hours < 6 hours) and adequate sleep ( Lin & Yi, 2015 ).…”

Loneliness in young adulthood: Its intersecting forms and its association with psychological well-being and family characteristics in Northern Taiwan

“…Psychological well-being was measured by four self-reported indicators: depressive symptoms, self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol use. Depressive symptoms were assessed using an 8-item version of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) scale [17–19]. The SCL-90-R is an instrument with good construct validity and reliability when used with Taiwanese adolescents [19,20].…”

“…Depressive symptoms were assessed using an 8-item version of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) scale [17–19]. The SCL-90-R is an instrument with good construct validity and reliability when used with Taiwanese adolescents [19,20]. Each five-point scale indicates the degree to which each symptom had been experienced within the past week.…”