The interaction role of obesity and pubertal timing on the psychosocial adjustment of adolescent girls: longitudinal data

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:The objective of the study was to verify the hypothesis that obesity is associated with pubertal timing, as both factors interact to predict psychosocial adjustment problems in girls. SUBJECTS: We selected 811 girls who had participated in a longitudinal study on a representative sample of French Canadian children from 1986 to 1997. METHOD: Only data collected between 1993 and 1996 were analyzed. We classified the participants into three weight categories (normal, overweight, and obese) and pubertal timing (early, on-time, or late-maturing) and compared their internalized and externalized problem behavior and conflict as well as their socioeconomic status. RESULT: We found that (1) early and late-maturing girls are more at risk of being overweight during the whole period of pubertal development as demonstrated by the increasing rate of obesity in these two groups between 11 and 13 y old, and (2) there was an interaction effect between pubertal timing and obesity in predicting problem behavior and conflict. Overweight and obese girls who developed faster or slower than their peers displayed more adjustment problems at 11 and 12 y old. At 13 y old, obesity predicted adjustment problems separately without regard to pubertal timing. Our results suggest that puberty timing is a risk factor for obesity and that both pubertal timing and being overweight predict adjustment problems during all the courses of pubertal development, supporting partially our hypothesis. CONCLUSION: Programs and interventions must take into account these two factors and adolescents should be monitored throughout all the periods of pubertal development.

The Stability of Perceived Pubertal Timing Across Adolescence

“…Because one of the goals of this study was to better understand if pubertal timing assessed at one age could be compared with pubertal timing assessed at another age, we chose to use the stage-normative and peer-normative measures as they are most commonly used in the literature (e.g., Bratberg et al, 2007; Dubas et al, 1991; Ge et al 2003; Siegel et al, 1999; Tremblay & Frigon, 2005). However, we tested the analyses using a continuous measure of stage-normative pubertal timing (based on the regression residuals including age, gender, and race/ethnicity) and using the five-category peer-normative measure and found similar results.…”

Pubertal Development in Mexican American Girls: The Family’s Perspective

“…The continuing decline in age at puberty among MA girls, compounded by the secular trend in obesity and various cultural barriers, present major issues for MA girls (Flegal et al, 2004; Siegel et al, 1999; Tremblay & Frigon, 2005). Although more in-depth studies are needed to corroborate our findings, it is evident that interventions addressing risk factors for early puberty, such as obesity, should focus on the family rather than on the individual child or the mother–daughter dyad, and should commence at an early age to obtain optimal results.…”

“…Early pubertal timing can potentially alter a girl’s mental representation of her body by perpetuating negative feelings about her body image and self-esteem brought on by physical changes such as weight gain and premature development of secondary sexual characteristics. In fact, both early pubertal timing and weight gain have been associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms and negative body image among young girls (Huerta & Brizuela-Gamino, 2002; Siegel et al, 1999; Tremblay & Frigon, 2005). Furthermore, girls who matured earlier than their peers were significantly more likely to report dissatisfaction with their body image than those who matured at the same time as their peers (Michaud, Suris, & Deppen, 2006).…”

Ozhirenie i polovoe razvitie: epidemiologicheskoe issledovanie detey i podrostkov Moskovskogo regiona

“…Изменение соци-альных условий и как следствие -увеличение коли-чества детей с избыточной массой тела даже привели к реально ощутимому ускорению полового развития девочек, всвязи с чем в 1997 г. Ассоциацией педиат-ров США была начата дискуссия о снижении возра-стного ценза для преждевременного полового разви-тия у девочек [18]. Метаболические нарушения вследствие ожирения у детей не только аналогичны таковым у взрослых, и включают инсулинорезис-тентность, дислипидемию, ранее развитие сахарного диабета 2 типа и развитие субклинического атероск-лероза (предиктора ишемической болезни сердца), но и имеют более неблагоприятный прогноз [13,28].…”