Early pubertal timing in girls is one of the best-replicated antecedents of a range of mental health problems during adolescence, but few researchers have examined the duration of these effects.
We leverage a nationally representative sample (N = 7802 women) managed prospectively from adolescence over a period of ∼14 years to examine associations of age at menarche with depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in adulthood.
Earlier ages at menarche were associated with higher rates of both depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in early-middle adulthood largely because difficulties that started in adolescence did not attenuate over time.
These findings indicate that the emotional sequelae of puberty extend further than documented in previous research, and suggest that earlier development may place girls on a life path from which it may be difficult to deviate. The American Academy of Pediatrics already provides guidelines for identifying and working with patients with early pubertal timing. Pediatricians and adolescent health care providers should also be attuned to early maturers’ elevated mental health risk and sensitive to the potential duration of changes in mental health that begin at puberty.
Comments
RE: Age at Menarche, Depression, and Antisocial Behavior in Adulthood
I suggest the basis of the findings of Mendle, et al., may be reduced testosterone. A case may be made in the literature that low testosterone results in depression in both sexes.
I think the biological secular trend, the increase in size and earlier puberty in children, is caused by increases in testosterone. (It is my hypothesis that human evolution is driven by increases in testosterone levels. ("Androgens in Human Evolution," Rivista di Biologia / Biology Forum 2001; 94: 345-362. If your library does not subscribe to "Rivista ... ," you may find this at: http://anthropogeny.com/Androgens%20in%20Human%20Evolution.htm .) This could account for the ongoing decrease in age at menarche with time within the population.
Subsequently to an early, high increase in testosterone would be an earlier decrease in testosterone. I think that this explains the syndrome of increased obesity, type 2 diabetes, infections, cancer, and depression in this report, etc., currently affecting our population. (This is attributed to increased obesity; obesity just happens to often be the first sign of the onset of this syndrome.)
I submit earlier menarche is caused by increased testosterone which results in earlier loss of testosterone which results in depression.